Lost Memories
by Elizabeth.M.Kelli
Summary: In drops Emma Macay, into Harry Potter's life. But she's missing all her memories, and no one knows who she really is. So the new 'adopted' Potter joins the magical world and learns who she is, and where she came from.
1. Memory 1

I found myself in the middle of a rather eclectic office space. It was all cubicles with men and women looking through pages and parchments. There were paper airplanes flying around seemingly on their own accord. Each cubicle had a different set o photos, maps, and objects in them, and all the pictures moved on their own. It was sort of like watching a bunch of movies, none of which had any sound.

I also found myself without a trace of an idea of how I had gotten there. I had very few traces of anything in my mind, and all of it was factual; the sorts of things like names, dates, and a few math facts. I knew I could embroider, or knit, or cook, or build a computer, or any number of other things. But I couldn't tell you how I had learned any of those things. I couldn't go back and remember anything; there wasn't a trace of memory in my mind. Only facts.

I stood up slowly my hair brushing my shoulders. As I stood the sleeves of my shirt stretched, and forced the unfamiliar high collar closer into my throat. As I moved a pin on the colorful suspenders caught my eye. It was a clock shaped like a rose, but seemed to be carved from precious gems. My treacherous mind told me it was called the Ruby Watch and it was created by none other than me. Problem was I couldn't remember how I made, or what it was intended to do.

"Who are you?" A voice asked curiously behind me. It was a middle-aged man. He had dazzling green eyes, and jet black hair, and he smiled pleasantly. His hair half hid a scar across his forehead.

"I'm not entirely sure," I said slowly as my mind tried to work out who I was. It seemed I was never quite sure who I was, because the searching took a lot of effort.

"Oh? What's your name?" The smiling man asked genially.

"Emma. Emma Rose Macay," I answered quickly. Then I had to go back and try to figure out which locked door in my mind had opened to give me this information, but whichever door had opened was now shut as tight has it had every been and I couldn't remember anything more.

"Well, Emma is that all you know?" he asked calmly. He sounded a bit like he was trying to calm a wild animal, which he didn't know whether it was going to attack if he moved. I didn't think it was necessary, but then again, I don't really know anything.

"Yes…Well, no, not really. I know all kinds of things, but I can't remember anything," I told him pulling the collar away from my throat. It was very high and uncomfortable, and I must say it was altogether unpleasant. I had to wonder why I would have ever donned this shirt, because I clearly hated it at this point in time.

"That's unusual, we should probably get you looked at. Come with me while I get my jacket and we can go," he said smiling once more. He started off into the maze of cubicles then turned back, "Stay near me or you'll get lost."

I followed his sedately, not because I trusted him, but because I suddenly had the feeling he didn't trust me. Not only did he not trust me, he had power enough to subdue me. Somewhere my mind insisted that he really couldn't force me to do anything, but I supposed my missing memories were the only thing that could have explained why I thought this. So I assumed that he could subdue me despite the mutterings deep within my mind.

His cubicle was larger than the others and he had a corner of the walls filled with photos of him and a red-haired woman and three children. The girl had red hair, but the boys both had black hair like their father. In all of them they were smiling and laughing. The rest of the spaces on the walls of his cubicle were filled with articles and maps. On his desk were parchment, quills, ink pots, and a variety of little instruments. A glass case held a winged golden ball inside, and an old beat up piece of parchment was tucked underneath it.

He grabbed a black raincoat, and then pulled the beat up parchment out from under the fluttering ball. That he tucked in his back pocket alongside a thin wand of wood.

The man turned and smiled at me noticing me watching his photos in the corner. They were moving and I thought that the younger boy looked pleasant. Okay I'm understating things a little, I admit it. I had an instant crush on him, and if I believed in destiny I would most likely say something about my destiny was to be with him, or some such nonsense. I wish I believed in destiny.

"That's my family," The man said proudly, he pointed to a picture of him and the red-haired woman with the annoyingly fascinating boy, "That's my wife Ginny, and our son Albus. That was taken only a few weeks ago."

"He looks my age," I commented touching the Ruby Watch.

"He just turned 14. Do you know how old you are?" The man had a cunning look in his eyes, but I couldn't find a reason not to answer, despite the fact that it was going against my better judgment.

My last birthday I turned 13, and my birthday is on June 6th," I told him cautiously. Again the door opened briefly to allow me information that was obviously not something I had to learn, but something you simply know after a certain amount of time simply being alive. Perhaps that's why I could be allowed my birthday and name, because they were things I didn't have to remember, but things I simply knew. I hope that theory is right, because I don't have a fallback theory to go on.

"But today is June 6! Is today your 14th birthday then?"

"Yes I suppose it is."

"Then Happy Birthday!" The man said happily before leading me back through the maze of cubicles. At length we reached an elevator and the man hit the button going up. The doors opened a minute later allowing a spill of paper airplanes to zoom out and several more zoom in ahead of us.

A slightly awkward ride ensued. We were silent and there weren't many people who rode the elevator with us, but all of them said something about, "Hello Mr. Potter" or simply "Potter." I supposed his name was something Potter and it began to grate on me that I didn't have an idea what his first name was.

"Sir, you never told me you name," I mentioned at some point. He looked at me completely dumbstruck, as if I should have known who he was without being told.

"I guess it's refreshing sometimes that someone doesn't know my life story," he said with a laugh after a short pause (an extremely awkward pause during which I wondered if I shouldn't have asked), "My name is Harry Potter." He looked expectant, but I didn't know why, so I just looked at him. If anything he looked more confused.

We spent the rest of the trip in silence.

When we reached the ground floor, or as the elevator voice told us "Atrium," Harry led me to a large fireplace in the wall. He tossed a pinch of some powder in and the flames roared green. He then dragged me into the fire and called something loudly.

We were instantly whipped through spins so fast I couldn't see a thing. The sensation was at once sickening and exhilarating. I knocked my elbow on something at some point, and Mr. Potter pulled my arm in tighter to my body, and he held me tight against him. I supposed it could have been very bad if I had hit something more important than an elbow.

We stopped spinning to find a tidy kitchen room and the red-haired woman and the black haired boy my age staring at the fire. As I was still adjusting to the sheer normality of the room the older black haired boy entered.

"I'm home early today," Harry said pushing me gently out of the fireplace. I stumbled a little, the same way you stagger when you stop spinning after going around in circles fast for several minutes. How I knew this comparison I couldn't have told you, I supposed I must have spun around in circles for some reason some time in my past.

"And you brought extras for lunch," Mrs. Potter said with a short laugh. She stood up and lifted two plates down from a cabinet in the corner. At the other end of the room something was cooking, and although I had no idea what it was, it smelled good.

"Yes, this is Emma. She's 14 and that's about all she knows about herself. Today's her birthday," Mr. Potter said sitting down at the table.

"14? I'm 14," Albus cried sounding surprised. I took the chance to get a better look at him. He had green eyes and black hair like his dad. He was very skinny and his clothes looked like they might have been an older brother's before he got them (seeing the older brother I doubted it however, they were close on the same size). On the table in front of him was a book, and it was opened to a page with an illustration of a golden ball like the one that was in Harry's cubicle.

"What's that?" I asked pouncing on the book and pointing to the ball. The boy looked astonished. That astonished face made me wonder what it was that had captivated my attention, he obviously wasn't very interesting.

"It's a snitch of course, what else would it be?"Albus exclaimed.

"And what does it do?"

"It flies around,"

"How?"

"With the wings"

"No how do the wings work?"

"A spell of course. Are you okay?"

"I'm fine thank you. So it uses magic. How do you use magic?"

"What?" I looked at him again. He looked thoroughly confused.

"Sorry, but it's plain knowledge I can't remember learning it, but I know that magic exists in every World in existence, and every World uses it differently, except for the Worlds that ignore the fact that magic does in fact exist." I said pacing staring off away from the people in the room. It was in that moment that I decided I wasn't a people person. I looked towards them again and stopped.

Everyone was staring at me as I stared back at them. Then I was spiraling into blackness invaded only by voices. One of them was mine.

"_Time! What are you doing? You should have called it before it could get her! It's all your fault she got hurt!" _

"_I couldn't, death isn't right for anyone. Besides she almost deserved it the little twit!"_

"_She's the princess, it's our duty to protect her even if we don't like her."_

"_No, it's your duty to protect her. My duty was always to learning. I'm a scholar, I'm not a fighter."_

"_You have a pretty impressive End Game for someone who isn't a fighter,"_

"_Just because my attack works every time does not mean anything. It's purely luck that I was given the Streams to protect."_

"_Yes, the Streams give you all kinds of Power don't they?"_

"_No they don't."_

~*~

**So hi there, Elizabeth M. Kelli here, I've started this story as a crossover between Harry Potter and some of my other stories. If you don't understand Emma, don't worry you will eventually. I'm actually really fond of Emma because she was originally just supposed to be the cute little girl that my story needed, but she ended up disappearing and I brought her back and she was a whole new person. I suppose she's sort of like Athena (I think it was Athena) coming out of my head fully formed. Emma didn't develop into something like most of my other characters, she just was….well Emma.**

**I hope you enjoy this, new chapters will be joining it soon enough, and I wanted to show this one to people. Some people who might have already read some of it (my friends and family who I practically shoved this into their aces, I almost feel bad about that), should reread this chapter because I have changed some phrasing and made it more understandable. Well I should go write some more…**


	2. Memory 2

"Sailor Time!" I shouted suddenly, "She called me Time!"

I was lying in a bed, I must have passed out. But now I couldn't remember what I had just remembered, only that someone used to call me Time. The room I was in had two beds, I had been tucked gently into one of them, and someone had left me some clothes at the end of the bed. The clothes were a little too small I discovered as I pulled them on, but they were supposed to be loose, so it didn't show much. It was a peasant blouse and a pair of boot-cut jeans; how I knew this I didn't know. But know I did.

After donning the clothes I left the room and looked around. I guessed the kitchen would be on a lower floor, so I took stairs down. As I did I heard voices.

"Who is she Harry? You shouldn't have brought her here," It was Mrs. Potter's voice.

"Mate, it's a nice idea and everything, but what can we do about her? I mean you said she's Rose and Albus's age right? Another teenage girl is going to make things better? Not really," A man's voice said sounding annoyed but trying to be patient.

"Harry, I think we need to get rid of her," A second woman was in the conversation.

"But Hermione, she doesn't know about wizards, but she was in the Auror's department at the ministry. I was going to detain her for questioning, but she barely even knows her name. She seemed interested in Albus, so I thought she could at least talk to someone her age before we did anything else. I figured she would let something slip with someone her own age," Mr. Potter justified himself to them. I found myself mouthing the word 'auror' but I didn't know what it was.

"How did she get there then?" Hermione asked irritably.

"I saw how she got there. She appeared out of nowhere. For a moment she had shorter hair and a very strange sailor thing. Then her hair was longer and plastered to her head with grease, and her clothes were what you, Ginny, first saw her in. That clock of hers though, that was an hourglass shaped like a rosebud," Mr. Potter told them quietly. My mind reeled, where was the Ruby Watch? I turned to rush up stairs to search the room I had been in when I tripped over nothing and fell down the stairs.

I screamed on my fall down, because the stairs were steep, but I never touched a thing. I looked around and saw a girl my age pointing a stick of wood at me. She was glaring at the older Potter boy who was pointing a similar stick at the place where I had been a moment ago. Albus was pointing his stick at the older boy. The adults were rushing up the stairs only to find me hovering over them.

"What are you three doing?" A bushy haired woman asked her voice filled with venom. It was the voice who had been addressed as 'Hermione' a moment ago.

"James made her trip, and she would have fallen down the stairs if I hadn't caught her with a spell, Mother," The girl my age said. I realized she had the same bushiness to her hair as Hermione, but this girl's hair was red.

"Oh did you now James?" Mrs. Potter asked her voice equally pregnant with venom as Hermione's had been.

"You were saying we should get rid of her anyway. Why couldn't I have done it for you?" James asked sourly. The four adults stared at him completely dumbfounded.

"How could you even think of it James?" Mr. Potter asked his voice full of hurt, "How could you even think to do what would rent your soul in two?"

"I wouldn't have killed her! The fall wouldn't have killed her!" James shouted sounding desperate.

"Yeah, a fall you started," The girl said turning to glare at James, "I'm going to let you down, so be careful." She told me calmly as she moved her wand. I moved in unison. When I was dropped to the floor (she dropped me when I was less than an inch above the ground) my knees collapsed and I fell to the floor on my butt, rather than on my feet as the girl had clearly intended.

When I looked up all seven of them were staring at me. I pushed myself shakily up from the ground, and then I did something instinctively. I bowed in the traditional Japanese fashion.

"Forgive me for intruding on your home and family. But thank you for the hospitality. I'll gather my things and leave if you like," I offered trying to appease them.

"Do you know what year it is?" The red-headed man in the back of the group asked suddenly.

"No, I truthfully haven't a clue,"

"Could you figure it out knowing that today is your fourteenth birthday?" The red-head asked

"Yes…2650," I answered after giving it a moment of thought. From their expressions I had gotten in wrong.

"No, it's 2022…I think maybe she's harmless enough. Who knows from what you said she was saying, maybe she's a witch," the red-headed man said the last with a laugh.

"Fine, since we have plenty of extra room I suppose we can let her stay here. I guess that can be her birthday present," Mrs. Potter said and turned away.

"You know I love you little sister," The red-headed man said following his sister down the stairs.

"Yes, yes, you love me because I did something for a girl who is obviously more polite and better company than you dear brother. That really requires gratitude doesn't it?" Mrs. Potter said shaking her head at her older brother.

"Aww, you don't mean it do you? I'm Harry's best mate!" the man said still trailing her.

"I swear Ginny's going to end up killing him out of shear annoyance one of these days," Hermione commented shaking her head at her husband's foolishness.

"Well we know I can stop her, I taught her what she knows of dueling magic," Mr. Potter said proudly as he and Hermione went after their spouses.

"Don't you love it when the adults forget you exist?" The girl my age commented as the adults reached the downstairs, "I'm Rose Weasley. These two dunderheads behind me are my cousins, as ashamed as I am to admit relation to James at the moment."

"I'm Emma Macay," I answered soberly.

"I know. But you seem to understand the horror of boys, any reason why?"

"I don't really know," But the shadow of a memory made me shudder, "I need to cut my hair."

"Okay, I'm sure Aunt Ginny has some scissors in the kitchen. She's just like my grandmother that way," Rose said leading me off. I heard one or maybe both of the boys follow us downstairs.

"I think we can be very good friends," I told Rose quietly.

"Well of course, we'll have to be if you're going to live in this house and survive the boys," Rose said seriously.

"I don't doubt. Are these your clothes? They're a little small on me, but you're a little smaller than me," I asked curiously, hoping they were hers for no real reason.

"Yeah, they are mine. But we really need to buy you your own clothes," Rose said calmly, "What kind of clothes do you like?"

"I can't remember. But I think layers would be smart, that way if I get hot I can take a layer off, and if I get cold I can add one." I told her.

"Oh, well we'll get permission to go shopping for clothes tomorrow. We'll need to get muggle money from Uncle Harry, or maybe Mum could give us some. They both grew up with muggles. Oh yeah, we'll have to take muggle transportation though," Rose told me as we reached the bottom of the stairs.

"That's all right, I wasn't much pleased with the fireplace traveling thing I did earlier. It wasn't very comfortable," I told her feeling a jerk of relief at the thought of buses, cars, and subways.

"Who was the red-headed man?" I asked Rose uncomfortably, perhaps I wasn't supposed to know who he was.

"That's my dad, Ron Weasley, and I guess you wouldn't have met my mom either, she's Hermione Weasley," Rose told me looking a little abashed at her parents thoughtlessness.

We went into the kitchen to find Mr. Potter and Mr. Weasley putting a "Happy Birthday" banner on the wall the muggle way. Mrs. Potter and Mrs. Weasley were baking a cake laboriously reading the cookbook. They all startled a little when they came in, but then they went back to what they were doing.

"Aunt Ginny? Do you have a pair of scissors?" Rose asked loudly.

"Yes. What for?" Mrs. Potter said opening a drawer and pulling scissors out.

"I need to cut my hair," I said with a slight shudder. The hair was really starting to freak me out. I couldn't figure out why though, that was behind another locked door, but it was directly related to the fact that I could understand why James would have tried to knock me down the stairs, and why I felt such pity for him for having thought of it.

"Oh? Alright then. Go cut it in the bathroom though," Mrs. Potter said giving the scissors to me. I thanked her and Rose followed me asking incessantly how I was going to do it. In response I asked if she could lead me to the bathroom.

The bathroom Rose led me to was spacious and had a fully stocked tub. So I scrubbed all the grease out of my hair and dried it before I started cutting. My hair reached a good two inches past my shoulders. So I started by hacking my hair to a level even with my shoulders. Then I trimmed it until it rested a little past my chin. Then I attacked the hair in my face trimming it until there were bangs resting on my eyebrows. Looking in the mirror gave me a shock of remembrance.

Tears rolled down my face and my shoulders wracked with sobs. Rose seemed at a loss as to why I was crying, and so was I truthfully, but she hugged me and rocked me until I quieted. I looked at her entreatingly, and she didn't ask me why I had cried. For that I was glad.

* * *

"So what do you think of this?" Rose asked me the next day as we were shopping. She was holding a red and gold plaid skirt. I looked at it a minute then lifted a blue and silver skirt with the same pattern from the rack.

"I like this one better. I feel there's a connection to those colors," I told her grabbing other skirts in similar styles and colors.

"Hey what would you do if you really were a witch?" Rose asked suddenly. I paused, I knew Rose was going to ask it sometime today. So I had thought of how to answer, and so I told her the truth.

"I don't know. I'm not sure if I'm going to be here very long," I told her gently, "But I think I'll try to get some kind of schooling. Maybe even this Hogwarts you and your family talk about so much."

"You'd love it at Hogwarts. You could wear as many pleated skirts as you wanted. More than you wanted," Rose told her happily picking out tops to go with my rapidly growing pile of blue, gray, white, and black skirts.

~*~

**Hi again, this is chapter two, and I realized that I haven't thought of any good chapter names….Of course I'm just now working out where each chapter starts and ends (I have over 15 thousand words written, it's going to be long). I think this chapter is important because I wanted to show how Emma ended up a part of the Potter family. I also wanted to explain why James wasn't going to be a big part of Emma's life from here on out. **

**Next chapter has some good moments, and I'm not sure where I'm going to end it, But we'll find out a little more about who Emma is then. Well bye then!**


	3. Memory 3

"Hogwarts letters!" Mr. Potter called up the stairs on July 31st, his birthday. We all tramped downstairs, I mostly just went to see what was what.

"One for Lily," Mr. Potter said handing the envelope to his red-headed daughter, "One for Albus" Mr. Potter handed the letter to the quiet middle child, "One for James" This one was handed to the child who was still in disgrace for his idea to push me down the stairs.

Mr. Potter was staring at another envelope in his hand, as if he couldn't fathom what it meant. He probably couldn't even figure out who it was addressed to.

Emma Macay, Scholar Macay, Princess Emma, Sailor Time, Girl-Without-Memories

12 Grimould Place

"I think this is for Emma," Mr. Potter said handing the envelope over to their house-guest.

I stared at the envelope even longer than Mr. Potter had. Whoever sent this must have known who I was, obviously better than I knew myself. The handwriting which printed my name was familiar, but I couldn't figure out why. The address however was written by someone else, and didn't touch my missing memories at all.

My hands were shaking a little as I opened the envelope and found three letters, and a plastic card. The card being the easiest was the first one I read. It just had all my basic information on it. The only thing that bothered me was that it didn't say the year of my birth, perhaps they didn't want to lie.

The first letter I opened was easy, it detailed that I had been admitted to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, it also told me that I would be treated as a first year despite my age. It was all very simple. The Headmistress signed it herself; Professor McGonagall.

The second letter was a list of all the books I would need. It was when I looked up from this letter that I realized they were all staring at me expectantly. I guess they all figured that I would read it aloud to them I didn't.

"Apparently I'm a 14 year old first year at Hogwarts," I told them seriously. Albus grinned, James frowned, Lily looked thoughtful, and surprisingly Mr. Potter gave a whoop of excitement. We all stared at him (Mrs. Potter included) until he blushed and looked away.

I turned back to the third letter. I sort of dreaded opening it. But I opened it anyway

Dear Emma,

You won't remember me, although I was the one who taught you how to use the Power as you have. I have several names, but for the moment let's just call me Setsuna.

I came to intervene on your behalf at this school. You haven't even arrived in this World yet, but you will be here, and you will get this letter on July 31st 2022, at 8:25 am. I know this because you recorded that time on the back of the card that will be in the envelope with this letter, and told me the time at a later date.

Setsuna

Emma,

Unfortunately you won't have a clue who I am. But I'll tell you this, you love scolding me. Setsuna told me to write you a short letter so that when you regain your memories you can laugh at me. She says it'll do you a world of good. I think us just coming and talking you would do you better, but Setsuna insists that you have something to do, and we can't do it for you. I think she's hiding something from me.

Well I suppose you'll get a laugh out of that when you remember me. But I should tell you, Chibi-Usa tried to dye her hair blue, but it's purple. You'll get a laugh out of that!

Rose/Mami/Megan/Lela

P.S. Aren't my signatures getting ridiculous?

"This is from people I'm supposed to know," I told them folding the letter carefully. I thought I would get a good laugh from the last part when I understood who these people were too.

"Really? Can I read it?" Lily asked energetically.

"It's private," Albus rebuked her looking at his sister scathingly.

"No, it's fine I don't understand it anyway," I said handing the letter to Lily. She read it quickly and handed it back to me.

"I wonder if that's really funny," She said aloud.

"I think it is, it's tickling something in my mind at least," I told her folding the letter carefully before looking at my supplies list again.

"We'll have to go to Diagon Alley today," Mrs. Potter said picking up her children's lists.

"Can I drive?" James asked avidly.

"No, you're still in trouble," Mrs. Potter said snappishly.

"Well he isn't locked in a closet doesn't it mean he's fine?" Mr. Potter asked his wife sounding curious. But I could hear a bit of a laugh in the back of his throat; he was joking.

"Why would he be locked in a closet?" Mrs. Potter asked concern on her face. Mrs. Potter obviously hadn't picked up on the joke.

"I got locked in the closet under the stairs when I was in trouble," Mr. Potter said calmly. I gaped a little at that fact; he wasn't lying about that.

"Your family was abusive!" Mrs. Potter cried angrily.

"Oh, well I guess that is right. Then I'll drive," Mr. Potter said acceptingly. I suppose he though Mrs. Potter would have picked up the joke, but he was willing to abandon it to pacify her.

* * *

Diagon Alley was a colorful bustling place. It was filled with people going about their daily tasks without a thought to anything more than getting what they needed. I was led to a bookstore, Flourish and Blotts, the aisle-ways were crowded with books, which didn't seem to be aware of the fact that it was an aisle-way. The store was also crowded with teenagers, most accompanied by their parents, getting their school books. Happily enough we saw Mr. Weasley, Mrs. Weasley, and their two children. Lily was ecstatic to see Hugo, who turned out to be her best friend and everyone who didn't know they were related suspected there was more between them than just best friends. I was almost equally happy to see Rose was there. Funny enough Rose was happy to a blond boy and she introduced me to him.

"Emma, this is Scorpius, he's my boyfriend," Rose blushed saying this, and I saw her dad scowl with old grievances over this statement. I assume that Mr. Weasley disliked Scorpius for some reason.

"Hello, nice to meet you. My dad said that the Potters had taken a girl in, but I hadn't realized she would be my age," Scorpius said giving me his hand to shake.

"Yeah, well Emma can't really remember anything, but she's a witch," Rose said nervously.

"Oh, I hadn't realized. Oh my dad wants me. It was nice meeting you Emma," Scorpius said disentangling himself from Rose.

"So why does your dad hate him?" I asked Rose as we went looking for my school books.

"Because he's a Malfoy. My dad had some bad experiences with his dad, and they don't get along. What's funny is that Uncle Harry actually hated Scorpius's dad more, and he's gotten over it long since. They even work in close quarters," Rose explained happily. As she was talking she pulled down _Standard Book of Spells Grade 4 _and _Standard Book of Spells Grade 1_. She handed me the grade one book and I managed to glance at it quickly before Rose added _10,000 Magical Herbs and Fungi_ to my arms. A beginner's transfiguration book and one for potion making were added to the pile, which was getting very heavy.

I was starting to bow under the weight of the books when Rose finally dragged me to the desk where we could pay for them. The young woman behind the desk looked at me curiously (I was obviously not eleven), but she rang me up anyway. I'm ashamed to admit that Rose had to buy everything for me.

Once Rose had purchased all the books she led me off down the street to buy a cauldron. Once we had it we dumped the heavy books into the already heavy cauldron. Rose muttered something about thick-bottomed cauldrons and her Uncle Percy. I didn't understand.

The stop after the cauldron was for my robes. The lady in Madam Malkin's was surprised that I needed new robes and not just tailoring on the old. But before long I had long black robes with the Hogwarts crest on the left breast. Rose spent the time looking at the dress robes, but she didn't buy any.

Then we made our way down the street picking up quills, ink, parchment, jokes, and potions ingredients. We also stopped at an ice cream parlor and had surprisingly good peanut butter and strawberry ice cream. The combination may sound strange, but it's really very good.

After we dealt with all the minor bits and pieces we headed down to Ollivander's. On our way Rose explained to me that Ollivander had been kidnapped and badly injured during Voldemort's second reign. He had died not long after that. The shop was repaired and it was still a wand shop, it was even still called Ollivander's, but Ollivander was no longer making the wands.

"Are you here for a wand then?" A woman's voice asked from the back when they came in.

"Yes, my friend needs one," Rose called back. The woman came out of the back armed with a measuring tape. Her hair was long, sleek, and black; her eyes were equally dark as her hair.

"I see, a little old for a first wand, did you break your first?" The woman asked taking measurements.

"No, this is my first wand," I told her before Rose could answer for me.

"Oh? Well that's unusual indeed," The woman said allowing the tape measure to continue taking my measurements without her guidance, "I'm Cho Chang by the way." Ms. Chang turned and began taking down wands, "A few of these wands are Ollivander's and I think one of his would suit you best."

"What kind of wand do you think will suit me?" I asked as the tape measure began to get carried away. It was busy measuring the space between my nose and right ear.

"Rose wood, and phoenix feather I should think. Although a dragon heartstring might do well," Cho said as she pulled out an incredibly battered box, "I think this would be good, it's a little long, 16 inches, but it's very flexible. A good match for charms work."

Ms. Chang set the box in front of me and took the measuring tape off my face where it was attempting to conclude what the distance between my pupil and the edge of my right eye was exactly.

"Go ahead and try it, it's one of Ollivander's it was one of the first he made, never could find a match for it though. It seems few people are comfortable with the length," Ms. Chang explained. I lifted the wand from the box and flicked it gently in front of me. I never expected what it would do.

A shower of sparks formed a triangle divided into two triangles and a diamond. The pieces were all silver, but they were outlined in pale blue. The image lasted only a moment then it faded.

"Perfect match," Ms. Chang cried happily. She was smiling and happy, but I was being sucked into a memory.

"_Emma! Come away from that!"_

"_But it's so pretty. You look at it all the time,"_

"_I am its Keeper. You'll be the Keeper of the Crest someday, and you can wait till then to watch it,"_

"_What's the Crest for?"_

"_Our royal house,"_

~*~

**I was a little conflicted as to whether I should end this one with a memory too. I you notice so far all the random memories that Emma reclaims are conversations between Emma and someone (if you're wondering they're different people in both). Later on the memories are clearer, and she remembers things from her other senses than just sound. **

**My sister wanted to know why I had Cho Chang become the runner of Ollivander's and I'm sorry to say there wasn't a reason. I sort of wanted to show where some of the people The Golden Trio knew have ended up, and I wanted to have a woman at Ollivander's, but none of the other female characters made sense here, so Cho got the job. I'm sorry if it offends anyone….**


	4. Memory 4

"So now you have a wand, you should have a pet. Most kids in Hogwarts do," Rose told me as we left the shop a few minutes later

"Like what? A dog?" I asked curiously. I wouldn't have thought that we would be allowed pets, although thinking back it was on the list.

"No, a cat, a rat, an owl, or a toad. But not a toad, toads are really unpopular, even though Professor Longbottom always has a toad," Rose said calmly leading me off to a magical menagerie.

The store was loud and a little smelly. The owls hooted as loud as they could manage, and the toads competed with them to be heard. Rats chattered among themselves, and the cats hissed, meowed, and purred as their natures dictated.

"So what do you want?" Rose asked as we passed up and down the rows. I paused to watch a little kitten get knocked away from the food. It was a strange pale blue, and its eyes were silver.

"I like that kitten," I told her watching it avidly

"I can tell, you look like a boy who's just heard a veela's song," I stared at Rose forbidding myself from asking what a veela was.

"Can I have it?"I asked energetically instead.

"Of course, it's a cat, and I said you could have a pet," Rose said laughing a little, "Besides I'm afraid you might beat me up if I didn't let you. I'll go buy her."

I continued to stare at the kitten until suddenly she turned and looked at me. She gave a quiet mew sound and settled down to watch me

A few minutes later the handler came and lifted the kitten out and placed her in my arms. She purred gently and settled into my grip.

We spent a little time more in the menagerie buying food and a white and silver pillow for the kitten to sleep on. When we left, everything but the cat herself had been stuffed into the cauldron. We met the Potters and the rest of the Weasleys in the Leaky Cauldron, where Mr. Potter was discussing something avidly with an old severe looking woman.

"We're back!" Rose called gleefully waking the kitten who had fallen asleep, "Oh Professor McGonagall, I didn't see you there."

"Well, Weasley, you are prone to nearsightedness. I was bringing a proposal to your uncle, that was all," I decided then that McGonagall was not a woman to cross.

"I think I'll accept. I've had my share of good and bad, I know the stuff, plus I may be able to keep them in awe of me," Mr. Potter laughed a little at the end.

"Then I'll expect you September 1st," Then she turned to me, "Emma, I will allow you to visit Hogsmeade with the older students, However if I find it interferes with your schoolwork you will be confined to Hogwarts grounds, understood?"

"Yes, ma'am," As I said the words I suddenly felt as if it was something I had overused to the point my mother got suspicious of me every time I used it.

"Good, then I'll expect you to be at school on time, and no flying cars."

* * *

A few days later Mr. Potter drew me aside after dinner. He was looking around rather furtively, as if he shouldn't be seen talking to me, and then he did something I never expected.

He called Albus over.

"Now I have something for each of you, and these two objects must remain secret understand?" Mr. Potter paused so we could nod our ascent, "Albus this cloak was my dad's before it was mine, and before that it was his dad's, so I'm giving it to you, so make sure you take good care of it. Emma this map was made by my father, my godfather, and two of their best friends. All four of those men have died, but this map is a map of Hogwarts and it details the entire school, and can show you where people are in the school. Take care of it," The paper Mr. Potter gave me was completely blank, it was the grubby piece of parchment he had removed from his cubicle the day we met. I looked at him curiously and he touched his wand to the parchment, "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good." He said calmly, from the tip of his wand blossomed words and figures moving around the school, the map itself obviously was part of the beginning.

At the top of the page were the words 'Messrs. Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs Proudly Present the Marauder's Map.' I smiled knowing one of these people was Mr. Potter's father.

"Which one is your dad? And your Godfather?" I asked too curious to keep it in.

"Prongs was my dad, and Padfoot was my Godfather. I never knew my dad, and my time with my Godfather was cut short as well. Both deaths can be blamed on Voldemort," Harry said looking extremely sad, but who could blame him?

* * *

It was September 1st and everyone was rushing around trying to get everything packed at the last moment. I was in a rush and Crest (the name I had given my new cat) had decided she wasn't going if I wouldn't carry her. I had a carry basket for her, and her pillow was in there for her, but she simply wouldn't go in. In the end Mr. Potter had to literally charm her into her basket, and she was hissing all the way to King's Cross Station.

The next part was almost as unpleasant. I had to run straight at a solid wall trusting I wouldn't crash into it and almost kill myself. And of course the fact that Crest was hissing and spitting from inside her carry basket didn't make anything any easier. The hardest part was that I was supposed to do this without being noticed, and just the fact that I had a hissing cat was enough to get me noticed.

I made it through the barrier without trouble however, and I laughed at myself a little. Then when Rose came though after me we went and found ourselves a compartment on the train. We were soon joined by Scorpius and Albus, plus a girl I hadn't met before. She was introduced to me as Stella Longbottom. When I asked if she was related to the herbology teacher she told me he was her father.

"I heard you're our age but you're going to be a first year? Isn't that really weird?" Stella asked curiously.

"I guess it's unusual, but I don't really remember much from before Mr. Potter found me at the Ministry of Magic," Just as I said this Crest let out a loud yowl from her carry basket and I was obliged to let her out. But as I did that I warned them, "I don't know how she'll react to having been forced into the carry basket, I'd watch out if I were you."

It turned out that Crest reacted badly to being cooped up. By the time I got her calmed down she had gotten all of us pretty well with her claws despite my efforts to keep her away from the other students. We were all relieved when she fell asleep on my lap. We were even more relieved when the trolley arrived with food.

The other three bought a lot of candy and cakes and everyone shared a little with me. I decided that my favorites were the Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans, because they were so interesting. I also found out that I hated chocolate, but I liked the cards from the chocolate rfogs, so everyone gave me theirs. I was most interested when I got one saying Harry Potter. I almost dropped the card in shock; I hadn't realized he was _famous_. But the card said that he was known for having briefly halting Voldemort's rise to power (13 years) and killing him completely three years after he came back into power. He was also known as an extremely talented auror, and one of the world's best amateur quidditch players. It also said that in his free time he enjoyed taking vacations with his wife and three children.

"I didn't know he was famous!" I said after a long pause.

"Yeah, people stare at him no matter where we go. It's really pretty annoying," Albus said ripping open another Chocolate Frog. He tossed the card to me after glancing at it, "That's Dumbledore, I was named after him."

"What? Why were you named after a famous wizard?" I asked him and immediately kicked myself; duh, he's famous.

"My dad said he named me after two of the best headmasters Hogwarts has ever had. My name is Albus Severus Potter, Albus Dumbledore and Severus Snape. My dad knew both of them personally," I thought it was kind of funny that in a way he was named after another famous wizard as well, but I didn't point it out.

* * *

"We should get changed soon," Stella said as it began getting dark. She then proceeded to force Albus and Scorpius bodily from the compartment.

"Can't you at least let us get our robes?" Albus said grabbing the door as Stella attempted to push him through it. Stella paused for a moment and let go of the back of Albus's t-Shirt.

Closely watched by Stella, Albus, and Scorpius removed robes from their trunks and left the compartment to get changed in the on-train toilet. Albus was muttering the whole time while Scorpius just smiled and laughed to himself a little.

"So, now that they're gone…"Stella trailed off and started pulling her robes on. Stella only had to take off her sweater which had a tank top on underneath, so I couldn't fathom why she had to push the boys from the compartment.

I had to get assistance from Rose and Stella to get my Robes right, but I left them open in front and displayed my blue and silver plaid skirt along with my gray sweater and pale blue collared shirt. Even with Rose and Stella's insistence that the robes should be closed, and their attempts to make it so failed. It turns out that while Stella was strong enough to remove two boys bodily from her presence, I was stronger. I suppose I literally didn't know my own strength.

When the boys returned Stella was nursing her finger, which I was afraid I might have broken and watching me angrily, and Rose was laughing hysterically. It seems both boys have good survival instincts, because they didn't ask what happened.

About an hour later we were sure I had broken Stella's finger, but since none of us knew how to treat broken bones we decided to leave it for the school nurse when we got there. It was soon after we had come to this conclusion that we arrived at the train station. Stella, Rose, Scorpius, and Albus led me to an incredibly tall man who was calling "Firs' years! Firs' years over here!"

~*~

**Originally this chapter was going to end when they left Diagon Alley, and I realized it was way too short. So I decided I'd go and include Stella's broken finger (which was originally a broken arm, but I figured that was a little too far), then I realized that to include the fact that they were sure Stella's finger was in fact broken I was going to have to go and leave it at a bit of an annoying cliff-hanger, which I detest. The only way to avoid it would have been to completely rewrite it, and I really wasn't in the mood for that. So this is what you get.**


	5. Memory 5

"Hello Albus, Rose I 'spose you'll be headin' to the carriages now," The man said sounding a little disappointed at this prospect.

"Yes, but we wanted to introduce Emma to you first. You haven't visited this summer since Albus's birthday, so you've never met her. She's a first year this year," Rose explained happily. Albus nodded to her explanation.

"Hello," I said weakly as he started shaking my hand rather hard.

"This is Hagrid, Emma," Stella told me smiling, and then she looked over her shoulder and grimaced. I looked with her and saw a middle-aged man who was mildly plump and had what looked to be fresh soil on his nose.

"Stella! You'll ride up to the castle with me won't you?" He asked pitifully. I watched him quietly from Hagrid's immense shadow.

"Yes, father," Stella said dutifully. I looked Professor Longbottom over again. His robes were a little dirty, but I supposed he must have been working with some kind of plant very recently, and although I'm sure I didn't see him on the train he wasn't coming from the end of the platform most of the students were heading for, but from the opposite end.

"Did you only jus' arrive?" Hagrid asked curiously, "Yer runnin' a little late aren't you?"

"Yes well I was caring for a rather rare plant, at home and I wanted to make sure Hannah could take care of it," Professor Longbottom explained sounding nervous.

"She was always good at Herbology wasn' she?" Hagrid asked surprised.

"Well yes, but this is much more delicate than O.W.L. level, this is at a N.E.W.T level, at least, and since she didn't pursue a career in which she needed N.E.W.T. level herbology," Professor Longbottom explained, "She should be fine with it though, I just needed to show her how to measure out the fertilizer, it has to be very exact, and the timing for fertilizing it are equally exact."

"Righ', righ'. Well I've got ter get the firs' years to the castle," Hagrid said nodding his head a bit.

"I'll let you to it then," Longbottom said happily towing his daughter along after him. Stella looked miserable at the prospect of having to make the ride up to the castle with her father, but I was rather more worried about having to take the trip with Hagrid myself. He looked rather frightening, mostly due to his size.

I soon discovered that he was not frightening at all, but rather kind to me. I'm rather sure his kindness came from the fact that I was the little adoptee of the Potters, who he seemed to like a lot. He was also rather kindly in his speech of the Weasleys as well. I wasn't really sure why he thought so kindly of them all, but I supposed it was for the same reason I enjoyed my two months in their company. The Potters and Weasleys were kind people, and generally fun to be around.

I was surprised when I saw the fleet of boats waiting for us, but I was even more surprised to see a huge castle was our destination. I don't know what I previously thought of as a school, but I was shocked to see the medieval styled castle, and even more surprised to note that the entire castle glowed with soft yellow lights.

I suppose that my mind was informing me that generally medieval style castles stayed gloomy except for main rooms and halls, because it was too much effort to keep the rest of it lit and cleaned thoroughly year-round. At this point I realized that the work of keeping a castle this size would be immense. It took me another moment to realize that a lot of the maintaining was probably done by magic.

By the time I had come to these conclusions I was on one of the boats with a very small looking girl, who was watching me apprehensively, and two midget boys who also proved rather horny as they were staring at my chest. I glared at the two of them until they found that observing the moonlight on the lake was much more entertaining than ogling my chest. Unfortunately they forgot this fact a few minutes later and I was forced to punch one of them. He fell in the lake. I then found out I should have been afraid of Hagrid after all because he began yelling and bellowing rather angrily after he fell in. The good part was all the younger students decided that staring at me was a rather bad idea. They also got a healthy dose of fear for Hagrid. I think it was a rather good move on my part.

* * *

When a still fuming Hagrid left us in the Entrance Hall to go into the Great Hall I looked around the hall glowing with firelight, and when Hagrid went into the Great Hall I caught a glimpse of students waiting patiently and candles floating in the air. I looked up expecting to see candles again, but I was disappointed and I only saw a floating creature which reminded me of a jester.

Of course because I noticed him, and he noticed me noticing him I got dive bombed by the appalling creature and whacked over the head with a rather heavy book. At that point I didn't really mind much; I simply found a very short person near me and dropped it on his head. I didn't at the time realize that Peeves had been hoping for this reaction, and began dropping books on every head he could find.

It was into this scene that a teacher appeared. She was very tall and very kindly looking, her name was Professor Skrewt, and she didn't appreciate Peeves' behavior. I realized that it would be best not to cross any of the teachers at Hogwarts at this point. They were all rather formidable. Professor Skrewt transfigured all the books into canaries which chased Peeves out of the hall. I must say I was impressed.

"Hello, I'm sorry your first impression of Hogwarts had to be marred by Peeves, but I suppose that is what Peeves was aiming for. I'm Professor Skrewt and we'll now join the rest of the students in the Great Hall for the Sorting," Skrewt once again seemed a young kindly teacher, but now we all knew better and were not prepared to do anything that might make her angry. I rather think that we might have been the best behaved first years Hogwarts had ever seen enter the Great Hall.

We were lined up in front of the High Table and Skrewt placed a three legged stool and a pointed hat that had seen rather better days. We all watched the hat anxiously; I must say at this point we were all wondering if there was anything, even something seemingly innocent, which could not give you grievous bodily harm in this school.

The hat suddenly started singing and I got lost in the return of another memory.

"_I've always loved this part," I said suddenly staring at the almost three pages of italicized text._

"_Why?" The girl across from me had bright pink hair, and I felt the stirrings of hatred and jealousy, but when haven't I when confronted with her?_

"_Because the Hat is so clever of course! Have you ever met a clever hat? I know I haven't," I told her scathingly. I looked back at my book, but she replied._

"_But it's fiction, none of it can really happen," She said as if it was complete truth and it could not be refuted for anything in the world._

"_Oh I don't know about that," I told her glancing at a Door behind me; I knew she couldn't see it._

"Macay, Emma!" My name was called and I had completely missed the first half of the alphabet being Sorted. But I went up and the hat was set on my head. It had barely brushed my head when it cried loudly "Ravenclaw!" I walked off towards Rose and Scorpius where they sat at the Ravenclaw table. The other two Potters and the other Weasley sat with Stella at the Gryffindor table, but I liked Rose the best out of all of them anyway.

As soon as the Sorting ended Professor McGonagall stood to speak to the students. But it was just as she stood up that none other than Harry Potter came striding through the door. He looked tired, confused, and downright annoyed as he made his way to the High Table. I watched his progress, and as he passed me he caught my eye and smiled.

"I see you've finally made it Potter," McGonagall said coldly.

"Well you see I got caught up at home, Ginny wanted to pack a hamper full of sweets for me, and I couldn't stop her. Then I got caught up by an owl about Dark Wizard activity in Elephant and Castle, I swear everything happens there, so I didn't actually get to Apparating to Hogsmeade until close to 5:30, and the gates were already closed so I had to get Filch to open them, can't believe that man is still here, and he was very reluctant to do so. That's why I'm late. I did glimpse one of the first years falling in the lake however, it was rather amusing," Mr. Potter explained as he sat down in the only vacant seat. I saw a lot of students in awe over Harry Potter being there in the flesh, and the boy I had punched (his eye was blackening) was glaring at him.

"Well as everyone can no doubt see Harry Potter will be joining us this year as our new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher," McGonagall didn't look pleased but she went on to explain that students weren't allowed in the forest, and that there was an extensive list of things banned from the halls of Hogwarts which could be perused at our leisure, and that students wishing to try out for their House Quiddich team were to talk to their head of house. She went on to explain that Professor Potter was to be head of Gryffindor House starting this year, as it was expected he would last longer than one year, unlike any of the last 30 or 40 Defense Against the Dark Arts teachers, two of which had actually died.

I was rather hoping he would stay more than one year, because I was afraid that for him to leave something catastrophic would have to happen, and I'm afraid I had already begun to care for him in a father figure sort of way. Somehow I feel like I never had a prominent father-figure in my life. Maybe I didn't have a dad, or maybe he was never home, I don't know. But I do know that this father-figure feeling is new to me.

"Wow, so Uncle Harry is teaching! I guess that's what Professor McGonagall wanted to talk to him about in the Leaky Cauldron," Rose remarked when Professor McGonagall sat back down in her chair. Right about then food appeared on the tables.

"Oh, look we've got steak this year again. I wonder why we didn't have it since our first year," Scorpius mentioned plopping a rather large steak on his plate.

"Oh, because Uncle Harry's favorite is steak, that's why we have it this year. But the house-elves were having trouble getting it cooked enough, but rare enough that it stayed juicy. I hear they quit making steaks under my mom's prodding. I think they just wanted her to leave them alone," Rose explained dishing herself some green beans.

"Really? Why would they want your mom to leave them alone?" I asked deliberating over what I should start with.

"Because she's the president of S.P.E.W., and if you call it spew she'll end up yelling at you so don't try it, but it stands for the Society for the Promotion of Elfish Welfare. My mum started it when she was in Hogwarts with my dad and Uncle Harry, she says I should keep it up at Hogwarts, but the elves really don't want anything, so I haven't done anything," Rose told me dishing more food up.

"Oh, and what's a House-elf?" I asked finally settling on sugared ham, green beans, and mashed potatoes. It was something that felt familiar. I would assume it was something that I used to eat all the time.

I looked over and not only were Rose and Scorpius staring at me, but so were all the other students around us. They quickly began talking all at once.

"Don't the Potters have a house-elf?"

"Are you muggle-born then?'

"How could you not know a house-elf?"

"House-elves are little creatures who serve one family or master, this school has over a hundred. The Potters used to have a rather sour house-elf named Kreature, but he died years ago. The Weasleys have never had a house-elf, although my Uncle Fred and Aunt Angelina have been thinking about hiring one. They say it's about time," Rose explained quietly. The other students were going back to their conversations except for one girl who was a first year. She was still staring at me.

"Why did you punch that boy? I saw you hit him and he fell in the water, but I didn't see why," She said very quietly. I got the impression that she did everything quietly. She had very pale blond hair which formed rivers falling down behind her, and draping over the floor. She had huge blue eyes, and a rather tanned complexion. I could tell that her tan came from long days outside her whole life, and not from genetics.

"He and his buddy were ogling me. I don't take kindly to it. I'm afraid I scared that poor Hufflepuff girl too, I think her name was Anna Higgington," I told her cutting a piece off one of the slices of ham I had dished myself.

"You punched someone on the way to the castle?" Rose asked astounded. I'm sure I shocked her. I mean I hadn't shown any violent tendencies before that, and I admit that I was surprised at myself. I don't have a clue where I learned to hit someone, but I knew that when punching I shouldn't tuck my thumb into my fist, because the impact could break my thumb. I also knew that you should rotate your hand at the end of your punch, because it allows you to add extra momentum to the punch.

"Yeah, well as I said he was ogling me. He's the little black haired Slytherin, I knew I didn't like him," I told her loosening my silver tie. We had bought it over the summer and I had put one of my mysteriously learned skills to use on it. It had been embroidered with a flock of butterflies in every shade of blue imaginable. The gaps between them were flashing bits of pure silver, and it matched my new house perfectly. I sort of wonder at that, did I know somehow beforehand that I would be Ravenclaw, that our colors would be silver and blue? I doubt it, but it's a heavy coincidence.

"My name is Lela-Rose Kealli," The blond first year girl inserted suddenly. It was coincidentally right when I was sure Rose was going to burst out in anger. I realized then that crossing any lines in front of Rose was not to be advised.

"I'm Emma Rose Macay," I told her with a bow of the head.

"We should be in the same dormitory, and I look forward to our classes together. I think you'll prove to be a very interesting person," Lela-Rose said calmly sipping her pumpkin juice, it was then that I realized that the two of us could be good friends. I was thinking much the same thing of her as she was of me. It worked well in my opinion.

When dinner was finished the two Ravenclaw prefects led us up flights of stairs all the while trying to get us to remember where we were. But I'm fairly sure that one of the sets of stairs we went up disappeared behind us.

The walls were all lined with portraits and they all moved. But I had become accustomed to this because at number 12 Grimmould Place the pictures moved, and one of them was hidden behind a curtain, because she started screaming about letting a half-blood own her house whenever she heard anything loud. I heard from Albus that she always did this, and they had just gotten used to it at this point. But he also said that she used to scream about other stuff when the house was headquarters to something called the Order of the Phoenix. I didn't understand that part, but I supposed it was something big and monumental.

There was a large statue of an eagle where the prefects told us to stop. I stared at it a moment, it wasn't a very pretty eagle, as eagles go. But it was decent enough to know that it was obviously an eagle, and not a hawk or something like that. I was surprised however that it opened its beak and started speaking.

"I am not the beginning of begin, nor am I the start of start. But I am the middle of middle and the end of end," The eagle said before closing its mouth again. We all stared at it a moment and one of the prefects asked the other, "So what do you think? I'm not sure on this. One of the more clever I've heard."

"It's the letter 'D'," I said loudly.

"Very good, a sphinx's riddle that," The eagle said before allowing us into the Ravenclaw common room. The prefects looked at me appreciatively.

"I never would have figured that out," The girl prefect told me after the rest of the first years had gone through.

"I've heard the riddle before, somewhere…But I have no idea where I might have heard it," I told her simply. I did have a little flash of a book page, but I don't know if it was an actual memory, or simply my theory.

~*~

**So, does anyone recognize the riddle? I admit I was re-re-re-re-re-reading the fourth book (it might have been more 're-'s now that I think about it) and I realized that I love the sphinx's riddle, I'm so in love with the riddle that I had to change the wording a little and use it as a riddle to get into the Ravenclaw common room. **

**I'm hoping that someone noticed that I skipped the hat's song, I had a good reason. It was because I can't rhyme, and I can't get the rhythm right (because there is a definite rhythm to the sorting hat's songs), so I had Emma have a memory instead. She was reading Harry Potter, and the pink haired girl and the Door probably will never be important. But Emma hates her, and has hated her since she was little, so she will be mentioned again with loathing.**

**I can't remember which Harry Potter she was reading but it was the fourth, fifth, or sixth book, because they all have the longest sort hat's songs. Okay well I posted a really long chapter plus a really long commentary, so I'll go now.**


	6. Memory 6

"So this morning you first years start out with Defense Against the Dark Arts, it's a double period too. Then you'll be heading to Transfiguration, then Lunch, after Lunch it looks like you've got Herbology and a free period. You won't need that free period yet, but you'll have to study during it soon enough," Rose said looking over our schedules the next morning. Lela-Rose had insinuated herself into our group, and I'm glad of it. I really like her, she was very impressed with Crest, who still will not part from me, last night. Crest had come down with us and was sitting in my lap through Rose's explanation.

"What are you going to do with Crest for classes? Most teachers won't allow her in, although I'm sure that Uncle Harry will be fine with it. In fact if you had Care of Magical Creatures Hagrid would probably allow her, but I don't think anyone else will," Scorpius asked curiously. I must admit I had been wondering the same thing. I just shook my head hopelessly and petted Crest's head.

"Well I guess she'll just have to go with us," Lela-Rose said attempting to take Crest from my lap, but Crest was paranoid of separation at this point and hissed at her. I just put Crest on my shoulder where she settled happily digging tiny claws into my robes. I didn't mind much because she didn't get my tie which was another project of mine, but this one was a very dark blue which was embroidered with white flowers and a lighter blue for vines. It was tied very loosely this morning because I was a little out of it, but it looked fine anyway.

Lela-Rose and I got lost on our way to Defense Against the Dark Arts, but with the help of the Marauder's Map and a few short cuts we still managed to get to class on time.

"You're very nearly late," Professor Potter said as Lela-Rose and I rushed into the room. I had only a moment to examine the room, but I caught glimpses of things glittering around the walls, and behind Professor Potter himself was a mirror, or at least I think it's a mirror because shadowy figures were prowling ever so stealthily through it, and I couldn't see the classroom in it at all.

"I'm sorry Professor, we got lost," Lela-Rose explained pulling me into a seat near the front. The class was all Ravenclaw first years, and all the boys looked pointedly at anything but me.

"Quite understandable, I was late more often than I was on time my first month," Potter said lifting his quill off his desk; "We'll start with role, shall we?"

As Potter called the role I looked around the room more carefully. There was an assortment of little objects lining the room, several of them were tops of various sizes. Suddenly all the tops started whistling. Harry had just called Justic, Marie; she had reddish blond hair that was pulled back in a ponytail.

"Whoever is doing something they shouldn't, stop. The whistling is making my head hurt," It took a minute after that for the whistling to stop, but in the meantime I caught sight of a little brown haired boy (I say little because he was even smaller than the rest of the boys in the class) tapping a book in his lap with his wand while muttering something incoherently. When he figured out that the tops were whistling because of him he stopped, "Thank you very much," Is how Potter replied to the sudden silence.

"Kealli, Lela-Rose," Harry called, Lela-Rose jerked as if someone had prodded her with a stick. Then she remembered what was going on and responded with a very loud "Here!"

"Macay, Emma, here," Potter said without looking up. I looked at him, but he just continued calling the names on the list. Potter ended with "Zecher, Jassin," and when he was done he tapped the board behind him with his wand.

"We are going to begin in our first year with basic theory of the Dark Arts and how to go about defending against them," Harry began. He was quickly interrupted by a raised hand, "Yes, Miss---?"

"I'm Holly Laurell. Is it true that you never took your N.E.W.T. exams?" Holly Laurell was very tall for an eleven year old, and her hair was cut so it was longer in the front than in the back.

"No, I didn't take my formal N.E.W.T. exams at the end of my seventh year. Now we will begin today by---Yes, Miss. Laurell?"

"Is it true that the reason you survived as a baby is because you have special magical powers?"

"No, it is not true. The reason I survived is because my mother gave her life for me. It's very old magic, and very complex magic. Today we will---Yes, Mr.---?"

"Michael Smith, sir. Why did V-V-V-Voldemort die when you only disarmed him? My uncle was at the Battle of Hogwarts," He explained to the rest of the class.

"Because our wands had twin cores and my wand had all my power and all of his skill, besides he wasn't using his wand. He was using the Elder Wand and it had recognized me as its new master. We will begin with theory and move onto to real---No more interruptions! If you really need to ask me something it can wait until after class," Potter paused and looked around the room. I did likewise. One of boys was raising his hand as if his life depended on getting the answer to his question, "Yes?"

"I'm Jassin Zecher, how did Voldemort return from the dead?" I could have face planted, instead I slapped my desk and started laughing. I'm not sure what I found so funny but I couldn't help but laugh. I think it was Potter's face. He looked as if he would like nothing better than to throttle Zecher, and I seriously couldn't blame him.

"He wasn't dead to begin with; he was less than a ghost to quote his own words that night. His minion Wormtail returned him to a body that was convenient and usable; I believe it could have even been his old body. Now, no more interruptions," Potter said calmly, "We will begin with the theory of the Dark Arts and how to protect against them, that will take a large portion of this year But we will be learning some of the magic that goes with each section of theory. We will go much farther in depth in later years, learning the basics of how to deal with dark creatures, dark objects, and dark spells in second, third, and fourth years. Fifth year will be advanced theory to make sure you are all up to scratch for your O.W.L.s. If any of you continue into your N.E.W.T years we will go into dark magic that is too difficult to deal with until you have a certain amount of experience with magical creatures, herbology, potions, charms, and transfiguration. Today we will begin with what it means for something to be dark," Potter explained now that he finally had our attention.

Potter tapped the board and words appeared in what I assumed was his handwriting. He ordered us to pull out our quills and parchment and begin work on copying his definition off the board. I did as told and we passed a very boring half hour with Potter having us copy things off the board and then explaining them to us.

As the first half-hour of Harry's lecture ended I began to feel myself spiraling down into memories. Usually there was some sort of stimulus, like something someone said, or a name. But this time there didn't seem to be anything.

"_She's been through so much. I don't think we should tell her," I watched through a crack in the door as Setsuna stood over the bed. Lan was sitting on the other side._

"_But this affects time. This could end her life if Rose dies. I might end mine," Lan dropped his head in his hands and his shoulders shook; he was crying._

"_Maybe Hotaru could do something? She's been healing things again," Setsuna suggested. Her long green-black hair was hiding her face from my peep-hole, but I knew her well enough that I could see the tears falling down her face. She had true affection for Rose, and she would hate to see her gone._

"_But Hotaru has finally found happiness. It's a time of peace and I don't want to snatch it from her," Lan said, defeated._

"_If there's nothing we can do for her I think we should send Emma to the Streams of Time to guard it, that way even if history changes and Rose dies before Emma is born…Well we won't lose Emma. I'll have to return to the Time Gate soon. When I leave we should send Emma off," Setsuna replied sounding equally defeated._

"_I think you're right. I don't think Emma should know about Rose," Lan conceded, finally. I turned and fled the doorway. They were sending me away when my mother was dying! How could the two people I had cared for most turn on me and become so cruel?_

I could hear someone calling me gently. I tried to lift myself from my memories, but I was once more spiraling down into the forgotten past.

"_Emma! Faster! We're going to be late, and it took us months to plan this. What did you do that you're grounded for years anyway?" Emily asked curiously as I pedaled my bike as fast as I could._

"_I snuck back in time, my mom hates it when I time travel, she says I'm messing with fate," I told her panting, "But fate is supposed to be what you can't mess with. If it was fate that my mom was supposed to be deaf and blind then I couldn't have changed it."_

"_I'd love to see the past, you told me all about that one time. I'd love to have seen your mom when she was young. She must have been really funny," My friend said wistfully, "But today's your twelfth birthday and we're going to have fun!"_

Suddenly I woke up to see Lela-Rose leaning over me, but she wasn't looking at me. I closed my eyes and saw the same girl as in my last memory. But her blond hair was matted with blood and she was lying on the ground. Her eyes were opened wide in surprise but her lips were still curled in a little smile. I saw one of my tears drip onto her face.

I sat up, screaming.

"Emma! Emma! EMMA!" Someone was calling me but all I could see was my best friend, my only friend, lying dead on the ground in front of me.

"What's wrong with her?"

"Is it dark magic?"

"Is she sick?"

"Emma, hush, hush," The voice sounded like my dad. My dad was dead. He got shot when I was little. But it was him I was sure.

"Daddy?" I whispered too scared to say aloud that fervent hope; to really let someone know about my time travel. Then I remembered. It wasn't Lan Macay's voice I was hearing, it was Harry Potter's.

"Professor," I corrected myself opening my eyes once more, "I'm sorry, I'm fine now. It was…A very disturbing memory."

"You remembered something then?" Professor Potter asked gently.

I thought a moment and realized that those two weren't the only memories I had reclaimed. I had them all now. My time traveling jaunts, my exile in the Streams of Time, my dad's body laid out for burial, my mother's comfort after my best friend's death, Setsuna's lessons, Rose and her obsession with past lives, Chibi-Usa and my petty hatred of her, and most of all my best friend's face after her older brother killed her.

"I remembered everything," I said trailing off. I must admit it sounded rather dramatic. It was made even more so by the fact that there were tears dripping down my face. I wiped my eyes furiously as I said, "But the letters make sense now. Chibi-Usa should have dyed her hair black, not blue anyway."

"Oh, and do you remember how you got here?" Potter asked truly curious about it. I hesitated.

"I never knew, I was pulled into the Tear and everything is gone, although I know this is the 12th world I've been dumped into since I was pulled in. I also don't know how to leave. So I suppose I'll stay and become a witch," I told him quietly. I don't think anyone heard us. Then I raised my voice a little, "I'm fine now, is class over?"

"No, we still have the last half-hour," Lela-Rose was the one to reply this time. I looked over at her to see her smiling encouragingly.

Class continued after that, although it was disturbed by people staring at me.

At the end of class Lela-Rose and I left together, and the rest if the Ravenclaw first years watched us warily. They left a large enough space around us that we couldn't be heard. I didn't notice this until Lela-Rose started talking.

"Emma, did you notice that Crest has been sitting happily in your bag all this time? I don't even know when she got in there, but no one noticed her," Lela-Rose said pointing to where Crest was starting to push her head out of my bag.

"Oh, I had forgotten about her," I said laughing a little, then I grew sober, "Can I tell you a secret?"

"Of course, secrets are always safe in my keeping," Lela-Rose said seriously. Although, the seriousness of her words was disturbed by the fact that she was pulling her long hair into an incredibly intricate braid.

"I lied, I know how to go back where I came from. It's been calling me all along, but I didn't hear it until I remembered how to listen. There are three places calling me, the one where I grew up, the one where I felt most at home, and the place I should be guarding. Each is a distinct song in my head and each in enticingly lovely…Did you know that people have songs? Every person's song describes them, so no two are exactly alike. Your song is a waltz that twirls and twirls and never grows confused. Rose's is something upbeat and fast, switching from octave to octave without a plan, but still it's cohesive. Scorpius's is soft and gentle gliding along like an eagle through the clear sky. But the best is Albus's, his song is a lion roaring, and crowds cheering, the crinkle of parchment, and the sound of a snitch's wings. But most of all it is home, the entire idea of home, and it's family….and love," I explained rather romantically. It was all true, but it sounded flowery and exaggerated.

"You're in love with him," Lela-Rose said tying off her braid, "Albus I mean."

"I know," I told her quietly. And I did. I was sadly, hopelessly in love with him. I couldn't say how it happened, how it had turned from a simple crush on a boy in a picture to love, and I couldn't have even told you what I loved about him. But I had found myself thinking of him all through the summer, and I'm afraid I couldn't even think of leaving this World without finding out his feelings for me.

"I figured you did," We walked the rest of the way in silence.

~*~

**So…Emma has all her memories back and she has admitted that she likes Albus. I actually planned for her and Albus to get together really fast, but I've decided to take it slower. But now that Emma has admitted it to not only herself, but also to Lela-Rose (who I love by the way) it's going to make for some interesting conversations between Albus and Emma, or at least I want it to. I already have two awkward conversations planned but I'm thinking of adding a lot more. It could definitely be fun.**

**So anyone who is actually reading, please tell me whether or not you want to find out how Rose and Scorpius got together, because now that Emma got her memories back she remembers why Ron would be so mad about Scorpius and Rose dating. I didn't say it earlier but the expression I imagine on Ron's face is my favorite part of the story so far.**

**So yeah, that's all I have for you today…**


	7. Memory 7

"Transfiguration is not an easy subject. Changing one thing to another is not simple. We will begin simple however. We will start by turning needles into pins. Needles and pins are made from the same material and they have similar proportions, that make them easy starts," Professor Skrewt explained at the beginning of our first class with her. It was with the Slytherins and no one but Lela-Rose would so much as look at me with the combination of my memories being restored and my punching the new Slytherin last night…Well let's just say I wasn't going to be voted Miss Popularity any time soon.

We all found out very quickly that Skrewt hadn't exaggerated when she said that transfiguration wasn't easy. It turned out that it was not only not easy, but extremely difficult. By the end of the class all I had done was closed the eye-hole in my needle, but it couldn't be used as a pin, because there was no pin head to catch on the fabric. I did however do better than a Slytherin girl named Amelia, who had a natural gift for transfiguration. The problem was that she couldn't direct that natural gift and she accidently turned her needle into a snake.

The break for lunch was not welcome. It made it all too apparent how few people I could even call friendly, even if they were not my close friends. Those who were friendly turned out to be all of two people, Lily and Stella. James was studiously pretending I did not exist, and Albus was a friend just as much as Rose, Scorpius, or Lela-Rose. The other four Ravenclaw girls tried to pretend they didn't have to share a dormitory with me, and the Ravenclaw boys were doing their best not to look like they were watching me for fear of reaching the same conclusion as the Slytherin, who it turns out is named Brayan, which is unfortunate because it is a very similar name to my uncle, Bryan.

It was a definite relief to go to Charms class where I could pretend to be so caught up in the lesson that I didn't notice that the other students weren't willing to talk to me. Or really look at me for that matter.

Charms was taught by a very short man who had to stand on books to see over his desk. He was introduced as Professor Flitwick and I took an instant liking to the small aging man. I also took an instant liking to the subject of charms. It was straightforward spells, the kind I had expected Hogwarts to be full of. Flitwick started us with charming things to move just a little. I managed it on my first try. Professor Flitwick was so impressed he awarded fifteen points to Ravenclaw.

By the end of Charms my quill and ink bottle were waltzing around my desk in tune to Lela-Rose's music. It was the most convenient at that moment, and I was trying to show Lela-Rose what her music sounded like. It was hard to learn how to listen for another person's music, and many people never mastered it. But even if Lela-Rose could master this skill she would never be able to hear her own music. Just like how I had never heard my own song.

When Charms finished we were sent off to enjoy our free period. Lela-Rose and I decided to take a look at the library, which was supposed to be rather impressive. I was rather looking for books on past time travel in this World, and Lela-Rose was looking for a book on muggle sports in Asia. I wished her luck in her search, but I doubted she would find anything. Of course I rather doubted I would find what I was looking for either.

The library was impressive, there were hundreds of shelves and each shelf had at least a hundred books when not four or five hundred. They were divided into sections, but I couldn't figure out which section might contain books about time travel. I looked for someone who might be able to tell me and found an old and aging woman who I suspect no longer had all her wits. I spoke to her and in a short conversation found her name was Madam Pince and she was truly beginning to lose her wits. She did manage to lead me to a section on magical objects where I managed to find a book which mentioned something called a Time Turner. It didn't give many details, but I was able to deduce that they were hourglasses that when turned took you back in time one hour for each turn. That was it. I couldn't find anything written by anyone who had actually used one. So I assumed they were theoretical, and I couldn't depend on their existence if I needed to move through time.

I have lost my ability to travel through time as I used to. I can't simply imagine myself in the Streams and follow them to another time or place. If an emergency were to come up I was helpless, and without another form of time travel I was going to have to pour everything I have into my studies here. But I suppose that's how most people would do everything anyway.

We spent the entire break searching the shelves and went contentedly (only getting lost once) back down to the Great Hall. There we found our fellow Ravenclaws were not inclined to speak to us. It was altogether depressing in its own way. Rose and Scorpius were even late for dinner so I ate fast and tried to make excuses to run away to the dormitory, preferably with enough time to pretend to be asleep (or really fall asleep) before the other girls could get back. Unfortunately when Rose and Scorpius arrived with their hands entwined they relayed to me that I was to go up to Professor Potter's office after dinner. I looked up at the High Table where Potter was conversing earnestly with Hagrid who was next to him. It looked as if Potter was trying to convince him of something, but I really couldn't think what.

I left immediately and rushed up to Professor Potter's office where I hoped I could escape the accusing eyes of the rest of the first years. I was disappointed. Albus was already there, and my new awareness of him (spawned from my admission of feelings for him) left me feeling acutely uncomfortable.

"Hey, how was your first day," Albus asked with an obviously forced smile. I'm rather sure that he had already heard about the shunning of Emma Macay.

"I passed out in Defense Against the Dark Arts, and I'm being shunned by all the first years," I told him with my old temporarily forgotten sarcasm and cynicism. He looked completely shocked by this turn of events and confused by my tone of speech. I guess he hadn't heard about my shunning, "When I passed out I got my memories back, all of them."

"Really? That's great!" Albus said still forcing a smile, but now he was trying to force cheer into his voice. Did he think I was going to leave?

"I'm not leaving though. It turns out I never knew how I got here, or how to leave," I was lying through my teeth, but suddenly his smile wasn't forced anymore. I swear, I love that smile.

"Oh you two are already here," Potter said happily as he entered the room.

"Yes, I was trying to get away from Violet Dunmaid, she won't believe that I have no interest in her," Albus told his father in a tone that hinted that it was an old grievance not likely to be solved any time soon.

"I'm being avoided by all the first years and a number of the older students as well," I told him quietly. I was still trying to figure exactly how I managed to confuse Harry Potter with my long dead father. It was truthfully baffling me.

"What? Why?" Potter seemed genuinely concerned for me, and for a second it felt like being in my mother's teenage years again. I resided there for a good amount of time because I was trying to stop the violent time I grew up in from ever happening. But in that time Lan, my father, had taken care of me as if I was already his daughter. But I knew (although I never told anyone) that Lan would never see me at that age again. It colored all that time, but all the same it was a happy time for me. I think it would be a happy time for anyone to see their dead father alive and well again.

"Because I punched a boy last night and ---"

"You punched someone?" Albus asked sounding truly in awe of me.

"Yeah, well, he was ogling me. He's a Slytherin by the way. He's still got the black eye too," I told him smiling. I was rather proud of that black eye. Usually I had to revert to the knife I used to carry in a fight, but I suppose in this World and Time, people weren't used to fighting.

"He was…He was…what?!" I stepped back a little, I had never seen Albus this angry, and I must say it disturbed me a little. He was getting paler by the second and I was illogically surprised that when I looked down all his blood wasn't pooling beneath him, so much of it had left his face.

"Hey, what's the noise about?" James asked swaggering into the room his little sister in tow.

"Oh, Albus is raging over the act that someone was staring at Emma last night," Potter said dismissively. "But I wanted to talk to you four because I need to explain why I didn't tell you this summer that I would be teaching. It's because I knew you would all feel as though I had stolen from you a place that was parent free. But you must understand that I'm one of the most qualified in teaching Defense Against the Dark Arts in all of Great Britain. I'm an auror, and I've taught this same subject before, to the same age group even. I know what needs to be taught in this subject and when. I know how useless simple theory is without the spells and practice that must go along with it. Hogwarts is the perfect place for me, it was home long before I had a place that felt like home. You must forgive me for not telling you when Professor McGonagall first proposed the idea at the beginning of the summer. I didn't formally accept until after the lists had gone out, but I had made it clear several times before then that taking the job would be well within my abilities. I will never give any of you special treatment, and I won't be any harsher on you than you deserve, but I wanted you to understand." Potter explained to us. I watched him and I realized that I really didn't have a place in this gathering.

"Yes, sir," was the chorus all o us gave although I didn't understand. We all went to leave, but Professor Potter held me back I waved cheerily and the others left without me.

"Emma, I called you with my three because I want you to feel like a part of my family," Potter looked at me seriously, and I felt a sting in the back of my eyes.

"I already do," I told him thinking once more of Professor Potter's resemblance to Lan. Then I realized that Lela-Rose was a lot like Emily. N fact the resemblance was uncanny. I'm sure if my mother had been there she would have told me something about how our lives repeat themselves, we meet the same people, and how we love the same people over and over again.

"Good, now Emma, your memories…Do you know where your real family is?" Potter asked concerned. I stopped and listen for my mom's and dad's songs.

I could almost think I heard them. My mother's two part song, one part moving slowly but energetically, the other part was fast and bouncing the notes of each part weaving in and out forming one song. My father's which reminded me of a river at times it was placid and slow, pondering life's mysteries, but at others it was fast and furious, even violent.

"No, I grew up in the United States though," I told him quietly.

"I really do wonder how you fell into our laps then. But you can stay with us as family as long as you like," Potter told me calmly. I must say I was rather touched that he would be this interested in me.

"Thank you, sir. I should really go to bed," I told him preparing to make my leave. He didn't say anything, so I left and, using the Marauder's Map liberally, found my way back to the common room.

~*~

**This one was hard to choose a stopping point. But the next chapter talks about the Ravenclaws a bit, and I wanted it separate. But I wondered if anyone had realized that Harry was the only one who has considered Emma as part of the family. Because Rose thinks of Emma as a fascinating new friend, and who knows what Albus is thinking, because I don't think he even knows. And I'm the author, that makes it sad. **

**I also noticed that I had them in Double Defense Against the Dark Arts on Tuesday mornings (I decided arbitarily that September 1st is on a Monday this year), and they have another class right after. This was a stupid mistake, so I'm going to go back (eventually) and take out the double bit, All the classes fit correctly when you do that.**

**I did notice that a few of my dates in the first chapter are off, and I apologize, but I can't change them because then Emma would be laboring under the impression that she's 13 and…I don't want to go there.**

**Also I'm a day late on this one (usually you would find this an amazing new chapter on a friday evening), but that's because Swim Practice was killer yesterday, and I was just too tired to do it. Also becasue of the way the next couple chapters are set up this will be the only chapter this week, I'm sorry if I disappoint anyone.**


	8. Memory 8

"Which is first, Ambition or Greed?" The eagle asked when I arrived. Thinking of some of the people in my memory who sold their best friends for power, I formulated my answer.

"Ambition cannot exist without a certain amount of greed, and greed cannot be satiated without Ambition. The two are like a man and a woman; one cannot exist without the other. So we can assume that neither was first," I told the eagle. It seemed stunned for a moment, and it swung open without another word.

The Ravenclaw common room was very spacious and several of the walls were lined with bookshelves. There were great stuffed chairs and couches arranged to allow either lively debates, calm conversations, or solitary study. There was also a group of less comfortable chairs and sturdy tables in the back near the boys' dormitories. On the other side near the fireplace was the door into the girls' dormitories.

The entire area was decorated in blue and silver and we had a dome painted dark blue or the ceiling.

There were few people in the common room, and none of them were my friends so I climbed the staircase down into the dormitories.

Ravenclaw Tower, was just as it was named, a tower. At the top was the entrance to the common room, and the common room itself, below were the dormitories. I sort of wondered why the tower continues up over the rest of the school when there isn't anything there. Well I suppose there might be something there, but I have no idea what it is, or how to get there.

The girl's first year dorm was already full for the evening. There was a total of six girls living in the room, and I've already begun decorating. I had pulled down the hangings around my bed last night and begun cutting and sewing and embroidering on them. The back panel was almost ready to be re-hung.

Lela-Rose greeted me as I walked in, and I pulled Crest from my bag as one of the other girls, Leah Abborton, let her cat out of its basket where it had been confined all day.. The other girls were Holly Laurell, Marie Justic, and Meghann McClenon. Leah and Meghann were the studiously silent type, and Marie was the type to forget about the real world because she was too caught up in her thoughts Holly on the other hand was the type to ask questions at every opportunity.

I sat on my bed and gathered the half finished curtains in my lap.

"Why are you doing that?" I looked up at Holly who was watching me curiously. The rest of the girls were pointedly ignoring my existence.

"Because the curtains are boring. I'm going to move the rod too," I told her glancing at the rod where it hung a good foot to the side of my bed, "If the rod moves closer to the bed I can use more of the fabric for binding and ruches."

"Could you do that for all our beds?" Holly asked looking at her own long beaten up curtains. I could hear that the other girls had all frozen, I'm pretty sure they were all listening in, but whether it was because they wanted their curtains done, or because they thought Holly was insane for asking it, or both, I couldn't tell you.

"Maybe later, I'm going to see if I can get some gauzy fabric for a canopy and inner curtains," I told her pulling a stitch through the fabric. I was working on the fabric that would stay closed behind my bed. The design was an eagle with its wings spread balancing on my family crest, which was the symbol my wand had conjured when I first got it. I was working on the wings of the eagle, because I've finished with the body. I can embroider incredibly fast because my mom started teaching me when I was four, and when I was grounded from ages 8 to 13 she had forced me to do a certain amount of embroidery a day, and because I didn't enjoy it at first I learned to go really fast, well until my mom changed the rules so I had to embroider for a certain amount of time.

"Wouldn't it be faster to do it by magic? My mom does her sewing by magic," Holly said pointing to my cherry wood wand where it rested half under the fabric.

"Yeah, but I don't know what I'm doing with my wand, so I could tangle the thread, or poke myself with the needle, or worse tear the fabric," I told her tying off the eagle's last feather. I was figuring that I was would be finished with the basic curtains by the end of the week, maybe the beginning of the next week, but depending on when I could move that rod and get a hold of the second fabric would change when the whole thing would be finished.

"I guess," Holly looked dubious but she watched my sewing all the same. The other girls were moving again, I suppose they all breathed sighs of relief, but I decided right then for no real reason not to let anyone mess with my head.

"Would you like me to teach you?" I asked with a sigh several minutes later. It was unnerving having Holly watch me, mostly because she shifted every few seconds like she wanted to ask something.

"Yes, please! My mom says I'll tangle the thread and she won't let me try," Holly seemed so happy to learn how to sew…so I pulled out a bunt needle, tons of cheep thread, and some embroidery canvas with big holes, plus a sharpie to mark her pattern.

I carefully marked the pattern and showed Holly how to thread the needle and tie off the first stitch. Then I showed her how to continue. Within moments Holly had fulfilled her mother's expectations of her; the knot was so solid I had to cut it out and start her over. The next time she did better and the knot was an easy one to ix, so I showed her how and sent her on her merry way.

Of course as soon as I sat back down to _my_ sewing the other girls (minus Lela-Rose who was sitting on my bed reading) gathered around Holly to watch. Soon though Holly had such a massive knot again that I had to cut it out and start her over again. At that point some of the girls (Leah and Meghann) came to watch me sew, and Marie went back to her bed to read what looked to be a law book. I wasn't going to question it though.

Despite Holly's difficulties she could do basic cross-stitch without too much trouble soon, and finished the eagle and my family crest (which was very simple because it was just two colors) Around the time that I finished Lela-Rose announced that it was time to go to bed. I hung the panel behind my bed and snuffed out my light before going to bed.

I felt I had made good headway with the Ravenclaw girls. Who knew if we would ever be friends, but at least they didn't shun me anymore.

~*~

**So Emma isn't shunned by the Ravenclaw first year girls anymore, and all it took was one curious question from Holly Laurell. **

**I really like Holly acctually, I came up with her as a whim, and I decided I had to come up with the other first year Ravenclaw girls too, unfortunately I haven't decided on all the first year Ravenclaw boys. I do have a couple, and I think they're significantly interesting.**

**I recently made cards that had bits of information about each of our first year Ravenclaw girls, and I thought you would all be interested to hear, so I'm going to put a list of the characters and some of their basics next, instead of a new chapter, sorry if I disappoint you.**

**I have a copy that was corrected by my older sister (thank you very much), but I'm not sure where I saved it, so when I find it I'll be replacing this chapter, but I figured you'd all like to have at least one chapter this weekend**


	9. Ravenclaw Girls Fact Sheet

Holly Laurell

Birthday: December 25

Favorite:

Color: Red

Food: Fruitcake

Animal: Reindeer

House: Ravenclaw

Hobbies: Asking questions, singing, and reading

Ancestry: Pureblood

~*~

Meghann McClenon

Birthday: July 12

Favorite:

Color: green

Food: Toast

Animal: Raven

House: Ravenclaw

Hobbies: Reading, Writing fiction, and Quidditch

Ancestry: Half-Blood

~*~

Marie Justic

Birthday: April 1

Favorite:

Color: Yellow

Food: Meatloaf

Animal: Owl

House: Ravenclaw

Hobbies: Reading law books, listening to court cases, and talking to poilic

Ancestry: Muggleborn

~*~

Leah Abborton

Birthday: June 1

Favorite:

Color: Pink

Food: Cookies

Animal: Cat

House: Ravenclaw

Hobbies: learning dead languages, styling hair, reading muggle books

Ancestry: Pureblood

~*~

Lela-Rose Kealli

Birthday: January 26

Favorite:

Color: Silver

Food: Chicken

Animal: Eagle

House: Ravenclaw

Hobbies: Quidditch, soccer, studying foreign sports, fashion design

Ancestry: Half-Blood

~*~

Emma Macay

Birthday: June 6

Favorite:

Color: Blue and Silver

Food: Anything baked

Animal: Bunny

House: Ravenclaw

Hobbies: reading, studying anything she can get her hands on, embroidery, and fencing

Ancestry: Unknown


	10. Memory 9

The next day all six of us went down to breakfast together We had all convinced Leah to leave her cat (whose name was Ice) out of her basket but still in our dorm Holly had brought her canvas with her and I was showing her how to skip stitches as we walked. That was why I didn't notice Albus until I had already run into him.

"Good morning, Emma," Albus said laughing as he rubbed her shoulder where Crest had scratched her (she didn't take to being squeezed even briefly between two objects).

"Morning, Albus," I replied cheerily.

"What are you doing that you're so distracted?" Albus asked trying to see if her was bleeding from Crest's slash.

"I'm teaching Holly how to embroider," I told his looking at my tie for today. I had sewn silver and dark blue striped into the midnight blue fabric.

"You spent all summer on all those ties and socks. I wonder if you've shown off your socks," Albus said peering at my legs as if that would reveal my knee socks through my half closed robes.

"No, I haven't but I'm wearing the argyle today. All five of them had to fight to get my robes half closed. I like them opened," I lifted the hem of my robes to so Albus could the socks with blue and black argyle pattern around the top.

"Are those the ones Lily tried to help you on and you said ruined the pattern?"

"No, those are the wave patterned ones. They have detailed waves around the top. Every wave has a delicate white and silver foam at the tip. Well except for one that has no silver and is incredibly clumsy because Lily tried to help," The last few words came out with unnecessary strength But I couldn't change that

"Oh, well we should head to breakfast," Albus seemed a little awkward now, and so did I. So I undid my robes the rest of the way so the midnight blue pleated skirt could be seen.

We parted ways at the door to the Great Hall with an awkward good-bye, and I walked with the other Ravenclaw girls to our table feeling incredibly stupid.

"Good morning Emma," Rose said as I sat down across from her. I stared at her a moment before replying.

"I don't think it's all that good really," When I began dishing heaps of bacon onto my plate Rose looked at my fellow first years in a silent plea.

"She literally ran into Albus this morning and they had a very awkward conversation," Lela-Rose supplied pouring herself a glass of arrange juice.

"Oh it's to be expected that it would be awkward you know.. He's a fourth year and a Gryffindor. Typically he wouldn't even take notice of Ravenclaw first years," Rose said looking satisfied with her explanation. I wasn't satisfied with her explanation. It was because I said something stupid that it ended up awkward. I should have just said that they weren't the socks and moved on.

I stuffed a piece of bacon in my mouth and glowered at Rose. She laughed and returned to eating her toast.

"We have potions first. With Gryffindor though, it shouldn't be that bad," Holly said as the group settled into an uncomfortable silence.

"I should be okay at potions. My mom's been making me help her bake since before I can remember. I love baked goods. I miss them really," I said wistfully looking at the plain breakfast food. I mean I love bacon as much as the next probably more since I think Holly is a vegetarian, but I would kill for some of my mom's muffins, or bagels, or doughnuts. Plus she would have fresh made bread coming out of the oven as I sat down or breakfast. I could never figure out how she did it, but I missed it.

"Maybe my mom will send you something when she sends the rest of us care packages She usually sends them to Albus, James, and Lily, so maybe…But if she doesn't I'll share mine with you. You don't really have any family," I wish Rose hadn't said that because then the other first year girls looked at me with pity and offered to share whatever they got in care packages. It was fully humiliating.

After we had all finished eating we made our way down into the dungeons for potions. Leah informed me that the last potions teacher (his name was Professor Slughorn) had taught upstairs somewhere, but he had retired for the second time 9 years ago. The new potions master had moved classes back into the dungeons where the teacher before Slughorn had taught.

We got lost, but once again with the assistance of the Marauder's Map we made it to class just barely on time. Crest was carefully concealed in my bag, and because she had a calm nature I was sure she would be fine.

The potions room was divided; on one side were the Gryffindors, and on the other side were the Ravenclaw boys. The six of us hurried over to where Ravenclaw house had made its mark and sat down. We watched the woman in front who was watching us all very attentively. Very suddenly she stood up.

"Good Morning class," She said happily and we all murmured some sort of reply. The professor seemed satisfied with that and tapped the board.

"We'll be starting on potions right away. Today we're just doing a very simple sleeping draught. Follow the instructions on the board and if you need assistance call me over," The professor then sat again and we began gathering ingredients to begin the potion. I read the instructions twice before beginning and checked then again before and after each step as my mother had taught me for baking. By following the rules for baking I was the first completed. One of the Ravenclaw boys, Michael Smith, seemed a little overwrought, and his potion had turned yellow when it should have been turning blue. It proceeded to turn orange when it should be a very dark purple. When it should have been clear it was the color of weak tea. Most of the Gryffindors did worse. One of them had to patch a slowly leaking hole with spell-o-tape. I suspect his acid green potion was the cause of it.

"Well let me see how you've all done," The professor said walking around the room. She repaired the Gryffindor's cauldron and made the potion in it disappear, "That would have killed something."

When she got to mine she paused. She stared at the cauldron for a moment then looked at me, "Please tell me you are not related to Hermione Granger. I don't think I could deal with that."

"No, I'm not sure who that is," I told her lying through my teeth. Hermione Granger was not Hermione Weasley, she had married into the family.

"I suppose her name is Hermione Weasley now, but if you had been related you would have known," The professor looked pleased, "Well, anyway your potion is perfectly brewed and you finished quickly enough that it has had time to set, which is useful with this one. It strengthens the potion." The professor moved on without further ado. Holly who was sitting on my left leaned over to stare at my potion. Hers was still a little purple, but mostly clear. She hadn't stirred it long enough after the powered mandrake was added.

After class Michael Smith came over to talk to me as I left with the other five girls.

"How did you do it?" He asked simply. I looked at him for a moment.

"I suspect you added too much powered mandrake, then you didn't stir it long enough before adding the mint," I told him, "At least that was about the time your potion turned yellow."

"Could I sit next to you next time so you could help me?"Michael asked with reverence to my potions skills.

"You just follow the directions exactly as they're given to you," I told him looking at him curiously. It was a very simple potion.

"That's not as easy as it sounds. You managed to finish with time to spare and notice what I did wrong with it," Michael said sounding shocked with me.

"I bake," I told him as if it explained everything, which in my opinion, it does. Michael obviously didn't agree that it explained everything because he gave me a disbelieving look and sped up to walk with the other Ravenclaw boys.

"You're really good at potions," Meghann commented quietly. I think it's the first time I heard her speak. She takes the idea of quietly studious very seriously; she was never without a book to study, and she almost never spoke.

"Really? But yours was right," I exclaimed in surprise. Meghann had been sitting in front of me and her potion had been the right color with the pale odorless steam curling up towards the ceiling.

"I moved too slowly and didn't have time to let it sit. I also had to double it because I put the wrong amount of murlap in at the beginning," Meghann said looking at me calmly. Meghann's eyes were an unusually pale blue, and it was starting to freak me out.

"I'm not that good am I?" I asked looking to Lela-Rose.

"My potion turned orange and smelled like fried eggs, don't look at me," Lela-Rose said laughing. I hadn't noticed the smell, although her potion had been a rather impressive 'signal' orange.

"Well, I'm better than you, but am I really that amazing?" I asked extending the question to the other three girls.

"Well, yeah," Marie said quietly, as if she didn't want to be drawn into the conversation.

"Duh! Mine was puke green," Holly said energetically.

"Yes," Leah added after a rather long pause. It sounded as though she didn't want to admit that I might e an amazing potioneer.

"I pondered this idea. I was better in potions than anyone else; I was able to tell what everyone else had done wrong (Holly forgot her mint leave and Lela-Rose didn't lower the flame before adding the powdered mandrakes). Why? Was it really because of baking with my mom all those years? Or did I have some innate ability?

While I was thinking about all this we made our way out of the dungeons and into the main school, and from there made our way to History of Magic. I was rather interested in the subject of History of Magic, but I wasn't looking forward to the class.

History of Magic was quickly proven boring (as I had suspected). When we came into class we saw a ghost floating behind the desk with transparent notes in front of him. When we came in he looked up and gave me a stern glare.

"I hope you aren't planning any pranks today Miss Macbell," The ghostly professor told me scoldingly. I looked around in consternation, we hadn't had History of Magic before and I hadn't planned any pranks before, although now that he said it, that could be fun.

"No, sir?" I asked unsure.

"You'd better not, or you'll be seeing me for a month of detentions," He told me sternly. I sat down meekly and pretended to pay attention as he began talking about wizards during the crusades.

I fell asleep.

Luckily so did half the class, most of them the Hufflepuffs we had the class with, but Michael and Holly had joined me in the world of sleep.

Lela-Rose woke me up as class ended and sheparded me to the door laughing. When I was finally awake enough to notice anything I realized that Michael was walking on my left side. I gave a start and knocked into him. Michael was still asleep enough that it put him off balance and we both tumbled clumsily to the ground.

Just then Albus turned a corner in front of us and stared. His face flickered between amusement and bitter rage. His amusement won, and he came over and helped me off of Michael, who had fallen asleep (how can he do that?"

"Thanks Albus," I said clinging to his hand longer than necessary. Albus didn't seem to mind, so I kept his hand in mine.

"No problem," Albus said after a moment. He released my hand, smile, and started off towards lunch, and I felt very lonely.

~*~

**So I start and finish this one with awkward Albus and Emma moments, and I brought up the idea that Emma could be really good at something, which anyone who knows Emma (you don't have to know her story to understand the points) will know is a really big thing. I'll explain it here, because I probably won't explain it in the actual story.**

**Emma's mom is a really ridiculously amazing person, she's very smart, a first-class liar, a well known author, a very powerful person (magically), and she happens to be the best baker Emma has ever come across. This fact has left Emma with the idea that she's really mediocre, even though she's very smart and talented in and of herself, she's just not in her mother's league (few people are, she's a bit of a Mary-Sue truthfully). This fact is compounded with the fact that her best friend Emily before she died was an incredible prankster, and liar herself. Emily's talents were something on par with the Weasley twins, and she was similarly misunderstood because of poor grades.**

**I hope this helps you understand Emma's character a bit better, because Emma's very complex, and she doesn't like being misunderstood (I'm pretty sure she's about ready to kill me because she hates being misunderstood and I haven't explained her well).**

**Also, thank you my amazing readers who somehow found my story and enjoyed it.**

**If my comments keep going on like this they'll be as long as the story, so BYE!!**


	11. Memory 10

Lunch wasn't bad because Michael and the Ravenclaw girls were all talking to me. Another Ravenclaw boy joined us when he realized Michael was sitting with us. His name was Jassin Zecher, ad he was writing something on a long piece of parchment. The strange thing was that he was using a much stained brush dipped in ink, instead of the quill everyone else used. He also carried around an ink pot which had water in it instead of ink, the water was almost was black as the ink though.

"What are you writing?" I asked looking curiously at his hand-writing, which because of the brush looked like calligraphy.

"A history of Voldemort's War. My uncle fought in the Battle of Hogwarts, but he died last year. He says he saw Harry Potter kill Voldemort." Jassin said looking up for a moment, "I'm really excited about Professor Potter coming to teach I should be able to get his first hand recollections of the war. There are huge gaps that only he can fill." I suddenly understood Jassin's insistence for getting the answer from Professor Potter yesterday morning. My mom had done the same thing when she wanted new information for her latest book. Mom would insist that her life depended on getting the next detail for her story exactly correct.

"Professor Potter's really nice. Of course he doesn't seem to like being famous. I didn't know he was famous until I saw him on a chocolate frog card," I told him. I was trying to read upside down but it looked like he was writing about some guy named Tom Riddle. It didn't immediately click why he was mentioned.

"Do you want to read it?" Jassin asked eagerly. I was a little surprised, because I was starting to think he was like my mom, and my mom never let me see anything she was writing until it was finished and on its way to the publishers.

"Yeah, Who's Tom Riddle?" But even as I asked I remembered. I couldn't believe I had forgotten him. I had read that book only a year ago. Jassin handed the parchment over the plate of buterkäse (why they had my mom's favorite _German_ cheese in Great Britain, I couldn't tell you).

"Well, that's Voldemort. He was Tom Riddle at school, and he changed his name later," Jassin said calmly. I noticed then that several of the people around us flinched every time Jassin said 'Voldemort.' I couldn't understand why, if I was guessing right Voldemort was killed over twenty years ago, and he was killed for good it seemed this time.

"That makes sense. Especially if he hadn't made it plain when he was young where he stood," I told him carefully avoiding the actual name. I started reading and found I definitely knew less than I thought. Tom Riddle had been Voldemort's father's name before he had it; Tom Riddle Sr. had been a rather wealthy muggle; Tom Riddle jr. had been a model student (that one I remembered vaguely from _Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets_); Tom Riddle jr. had killed a fellow student (I sort of remembered that one too).

I looked up at Jassin when I finished. Jassin had this glowing look in his eyes; he wanted to know what I thought. I think that's what that look meant anyway, it wasn't quite like the look Rose gave me when she wanted to know what I thought. That look was a little more pleading and a lot less groveling.

"I didn't know Vol---Tom Riddle jr. was only a half-blood. I assumed he was pureblood," I told him. I couldn't comfortably say more, because I knew a lot more than I was letting on. My mom's favorite books had been the Harry Potter series, but she hadn't let me read past the fifth book, because my mom said, "They get too dark."

"Oh, well really few people know really, because he was all for 'purebloods only'," Jassin said dismissively.

"Yeah, I think I'd enjoy helping you research. I'd enjoy learning more of Voldemort's second rise to power," I told him thinking of those two books I never read. Maybe I could find a way to get a hole of them.

* * *

Herbology was taught in the greenhouses on the grounds. There were three greenhouses and each held a different type of plant.

Greenhouse one was typically filled with British native plants (why they couldn't just have a garden plot is beyond me), and the weather within greenhouse one was basically the same as the weather outside of greenhouse one. In other words if it's snowing outside you're about to freeze to death, because it doesn't get any warmer.

Greenhouse two was really two greenhouses which have been connected. The first half was plants that preferred the warmer weather to the south. While the second half of the greenhouse was full of plants which preferred the cooler weather to the north.

Greenhouse three was filled with plants which could be dangerous if not properly handled. These were plants like mandrakes and venomous tenticula, plants you don't want to mess with when it isn't necessary. Of course you occasionally do need them (the proof of this being the fact that when petrified your best defense is a good mandrake juice). And so we must learn how to handle them as well.

Professor Longbottom was waiting for us outside greenhouse one. Poking our of Longbottom's pocket was a toad. It was a big, fat, lazy looking taod.

"Welcome! Welcome class, we'll start in greenhouse one with some native plants. Today we'll work with thyme," Longbottom told us leading us into the greenhouse itself.

"Why thyme? It's a kitchen herb," A rather sour voice complained from behind me. I turned to see that we had this class with Slytherin. The voice was the black-haired boy I hit two days ago.

"Thyme is a highly effective healing herb, and it is incredibly easy to care for. This makes it perfect for a first class Mr. Higgs," Professor Logbottome told us calmly. "Now who can tell me what else thyme is used for?"

To my surprise I knew this. I raised my hand before I knew I was going to answer. The look on my face must have been interesting because Lela-Rose promptly snorted and suppressed any further laughter.

"Yes Miss Macay?" Professor Longbottom said calling on me and my treacherously upraised hand.

"Thyme can be used in potions, usually to make the potion less chaotic and pull protective elements together. Generally anything intended to help the drinker of the potion will have at least one sprig of thyme. This concept can also be added to cooking in that thyme will pull various contrasting elements together. Most people however use thyme simply for its flavor," I said not sure why I was talking so much. I wasn't a know-it-all I answered perhaps three questions in all my years of school since I started at age six.

"Correct, 10 points to Ravenclaw. I myself didn't know it had the same effect in cooking as it did in potion making," Professor Longbottom proclaimed happily. "How did you know?"

"My mother told me when we were cooking one day. The thyme was essential to the recipe because the flavors contrasted so sharply, the thyme had to smooth it out," Why was I walking so much? Cooking with my mom were special moments in my life. Mom always told me a story about that recipe, like how thyme was the key.

"Oh? Your mother must be a talented witch," Professor Longbottom told me earnestly.

"No, my mom isn't a witch, she never had any kind of ---"

"Oh! I'm late!" A girl with long brown hair said as she rushed into greenhouse one. She was several inches taller than me, and she looked to be in her twenties (I was tall for a 14 year old), her eyes were brown, and her face was mine, or rather mine was hers.

~*~

**Oh, this is a cliff hanger, that wasn't actually intended, but if I tried to carry the story on further (so the chapter wasn't quite so dismally short) I wouldn't be able to stop again for awhile, and that would make this chapter really long, because I'd have to get through all the explanations over this young woman who just can bursting into the class, during a decidedly uncomfortable conversation, which were it not needed for the story, wouldn't have happened.**

**I may post another chapter tomorrow, but it depends on how fast I can type. I've got a ton written, but it's in a notebook, and that doesn't do me much good unless I type it up. But I'm going to give a couple of little clues as to what's coming in the future, because knowing me it'll be a bit before I update again (I'm incredibly lazy)**

**First, the new girls helps us get some insight on Emma's past (That we haven't seen)**

**Second, we'll meet a new girl, who is no doubt a bad influence**

**Third, we'll run up against a few flying lessons **

**Fourth, I'll be posting the first chapter of a new story called 'Lemonade' about Rose Weasley and Scorpius Malfoy, because a couple people said they wanted to know what happened between them.**


	12. Memory 11

"I'm Mami, and I'll be assisting any teacher who might request my help. Professor Longbottom heard me saying that I keep an herb garden and wished my assistance with thyme," Mami introduced herself cheerfully.

"Rose!" I felt myself burst out angrily. How dare she follow me where I wasn't known, where she wasn't known. Especially since the last time I saw her she was a number of years younger and she was laying on her deathbed. How dare they not tell me she was better!

"Oh, hello Emma. I though Rose would be confusing what with Rose Weasley and Lela-Rose Kealli running around, and it couldn't be Lela because of Lela-Rose, then there's Meghann, so I couldn't be Megan wither. So I took my name I used in Japan, I'm sure you remember if you remembered to call me 'Rose'," Mami said completely unphased that I had called out to her. Plus, she just revealed that she was essentially lying about her name, but I guess I'm the only one who actually would realize that she wasn't lying about her name and every one of those names was officially hers. I sort of wondered what last name she chose, because she must have at least three. Maybe even four.

"Oh, Emma you know Miss Mami?" Longbottom asked forgetting he had a class to teach.

"Yeah she's…She's my sister," I said having to think of how to explain not only our knowing each other, but also the fact that we look like the same person, which a ten year difference.

Mami looked at me strangely then seemed to realize why I had said what I had and added her own bit, "We haven't seen each other in years, not since I left for college at 18, the last six years we've been separated. Emma disappeared from home almost a year ago, but no one could find her until I applied for a job at Hogwarts."

You know it's moments like these that I love Mami (who I've been referring to as Rose until now). Mami is an author, and as such feels she has a duty to tell lies that can't be detected. Mami mastered this when she was all of six years old, and has been covering tracks for her friends ever since.

Of course everyone was now curious as to why I had disappeared from home. Mami's stories are so believable I didn't doubt that before the day was over Professor Potter would be asking both of us about my 'disappearance.'

"well…should we continue the lesson?" Professor Longbottom had an expression that it took me a moment to recognize. He was pitying us.

"Of course Professor! Trevor's escaping," Mami added glancing at the fat toad, who had escaped Professor Longbottom's pocket and was making a break for the door.

"Trevor!" Professor Longbottom cried running after the toad. We watched in surprised silence as Longbottom accidently broke the glass of the greenhouse door through which Trevor the toad escaped.

We all started at each other a moment listening to Professor Longbottom's slowly fading voice outside the greenhouse. Mami smiled suddenly and started laughing. In that moment we learned never to make Mami laugh, because she runs out of air and starts squeaking.

"I suppose you're all dismissed, you only have twenty minutes anyway." Mami said starting to calm down. 'But Emma, come with me a moment, we need to talk."

Everyone cleared out silently leaving me alone with Mami. Mami stared at the trays of herbs growing near the door or a moment before looking at me. She looked immensely tired even though just a moment ago she was bursting with energy. I sometimes wonder if Mami would do better as an actress than an author.

"Why did you leave? I got up from my sickbed to find out you had left. So had Setsuna. The other girls had gone back to Japan and it was just Lan and me in our little apartment. I was really lonely without you," Mami said sounding completely lost. "Then after almost two years Setsuna told us that she knew where you were but you had lost all your memories. She made me write you a letter and left to deliver it. She wouldn't tell me where you were, but it was another four years before I was able to find you myself."

I stared at her. She hadn't lied, I really had been gone six years, and she really had been looking for me. No wonder she was tired, she must have used ridiculous amounts of energy trying to find me.

"Setsuna and Lan sent me to guard the Streams of Time, and I got pulled into a Rip in the Streams. I hadn't realized six years had passed, for me it's like only a moment passed between entering the Rip and landing in the Ministry of Magic," I told her moving closer. I really wanted a hug, but I doubted she would give it to me.

"I know," Mami said lunging forward and hugging me tightly. She was crying a bit; I hadn't realized she would miss me that much. I let her cry and hugged her back. She was still too young or me to have been born, but she's probably working on her Master's, and it's likely that Lan had already married her

When Mami had calmed down she released me and we walked towards the library.

"I have some books for you to read. I don't know if you've already read them, but they'll help you," Mami told me turning off before we reached the library.

Mami led me up another flight of stairs until we reached the seventh floor where Mami stopped and stared at a blank stretch of wall,. She smiled and paced back and forth in front of the wall until a door appeared. I wasn't surprised; this must be the Room of Requirement.

Mami opened the door and we both entered to find a bookshelf, a chair, and a fireplace waiting for us. There was a thick plush carpet like the kind my mom always had in the bedrooms of our house, the rest of the house was warm wood floors. But the carpets looked singed at the edges and there were scorch marks on the top and bottom of the floors, the marks met in the middle in a few places, but very few. The bookcase contained only seven books, they were all familiar to Mami who caressed their spines with a loving touch. Five of them were familiar to me as well.

They were the Harry Potter books by J.K. Rowling. The last three were easily larger than any of my textbooks, but I knew that they had all the things I wanted to know about this world. I also knew they could help Jassin Zecher, who I hoped was my friend.

"You should read them. The last three are very dark, but you need to understand the darkness of this world and the people around you. I won't be here long, I'm eager to get home for my wedding-"

"You haven't married Lan yet?" I asked incredulously. I had assumed they would be married already, they met when they were sixteen and hadn't broken up in the last eight years. But I suppose Mami must be working on her Master's after all.

"No, he asked me to marry him close to a year ago though. My dress is so pretty, it's white and fluffy with seed pearls and lace…Well you probably don't want to listen," Mami smiled and chuckled nervously."I think it's nice, you two should have gotten married ages ago. I mean I won't exist if you don't get married," I told her giving her a bright smile. Mami returned my smile and took the books from the shelf. She tapped them with a wand (when did she get one?" and they looked like books about schools of witchcraft and wizardry (_Hogwarts, A History_, _A comparison of Magical Schools in Europe_, _American Schools of Witchcraft_, you get the idea).

"Where did you learn to do that?" I asked her taking the pile of books.

"Well I read the books, plus I watched some memories from former students at Hogwarts," Mami explained as if that was the way everyone learned magic that fast.

I shook my head ruefully as we left the room. We parted ways outside the Room of Requirement. Mami went down to the dungeon to assist Professor Parkinson (I secretly believed she would do better than the professor) and I went up to Ravenclaw Tower to read to books, because we didn't have another class until Astronomy this evening.

Today the eagle asked me, What's black and white, but red all over?" I laughed because I had heard the riddle any number of times and told it, "A newspaper." The eagle opened the door without comment and I headed through.

Jassin was sitting at one of the tables with a large number of paints surrounding him and a canvas in front of him. Michael and Lea were snogging in the corner (Weren't they a little to young for that kind of thing?) and Lela-Rose was cleaning a rather muddy looking soccer ball. Until that moment I hadn't realized that Lela-Rose played soccer, although I knew she followed the sport because she had a muggle poster of some team (she also had a poster of the Holyhead Harpies).

"Emma! What are those books?" Jassin asked curiously being the first to notice my appearance.

"A couple of books m-my sister suggested," I almost said my mom, but my mom wasn't my mom yet and right not she was pretending to be my sister anyway.

"magical School? I was sort of hoping for history books," Michael looked so disappointed with the books that I stepped over to Michael's painting and looked at it. I stared. It was a painting of the potions class this morning. I as leaning over a deep purple potion, smiling gently while Holly was searching frantically for her murtlap root and on my other side Lela-Rose was wrinkling her nose in distaste looking at her signal orange potion.

"Oh, um, well…" Michael sputtered as I stared at the almost finished painting. I turned to lookat at Michael astounded. Had he been watching us? The details were perfect, even the way my hair was half tucked behind my ears so a section of my forehead was noticeable.

"You have an amazing artistic eye," I commented shifting the ooks in my arms. I hurried out of the room, but as the door into the girls dorms slowly closed I could hear a snatch of conversation.

"you shouldn't have let her see," Lela-Rose said gently.

"But, I had to paint it. I screwed up my potion because I was watching her so closely. She's amazing," The last bit Jassin said with awe. But I was thinking something along the lines of 'If you had just been doing your stupid potion like you were supposed to be you wouldn't have ruined it, and you wouldn't have noticed me. And isn't the idiot too young for a crush?'

"Don't pursue her. She has someone she likes. Plus things seem awkward between her and her sister. You confessing "love" to her would just mess things up worse than your potion," Lela-Rose told him. I moves quickly away.

As I made my way up the stairs I thought more logically about the situation. Jassin liked me? But he's barely even spoken to me. He screwed up his potion because he was watching me? I saw him add too much powdered mandrake. It was obvious.

When I reached our dorm I pulled the first book from the stack and started reading desperately. I didn't want to know he liked me. I didn't want anyone to like me except Albus. But I'm sure he thinks I like Michael, but Michael's snogging Leah.

* * *

At dinner Albus came and sat with us. Apparently he sits with Rose and Scorpius often. Things were a little awkward because Michael was sitting two seats down from me, and Albus kept looking back and forth from me to Michael all through dinner. I sat and read _Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone_ which was cleverly disguised as _Hogwarts, A History_.

When the first years left for Astronomy I snapped the book shut an started off. When we were walking through the school to the tallest tower we passed Professor Potter's office His door was partially ajar and the professor himself was sitting at his desk, as I passed a sneakoscope by his door went off and Professor Potter looked up.

"Emma, will you come here," Potter requested gently gesturing to the seat in front of his desk The sneakoscope spun faster and whistled louder as I passed.

"Yes, Sir?" I asked taking the indicated seat.

'what ar you concealing or lying about magically?" He cut straight to the point without any cushioning. I felt compelled as I pulled the book out of my bag. I was concealing a lot of other stuff, but this was the only thing I was concealing magically.

"_Hogwarts, A History_. My best friend ihn school adored this book, but it's not really _Hogwarts, A History_ is it?" with this Potter tapped the books with his wand and it revealed itself to be _Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone_. Professor Potter started at the book in shock before opening and looking through the chapters.

"How did you get this?" He finally asked starting at the picture at the beginning of the last chapter. It was a man with two faces.

"I read it as a child, and when I got my memories back I asked the Room of Requirement for it," I told him partially truthfully.

"You said before that the date was over six hundred years in the future, why?" I suppose all my lies and deceptions would be put to the test here, and now. Not only that, but I'm sure that in the future the trustworthiness of this professor would be tested as well.

"because it should be In my lifetime it's the future and crime is rampant and so is war. I used to carry a knifef when I was allowed to leave the house."

"And Mami Macay, who says she's your sister?"

"My mom, from a time before mine, but after yours. She's been looking for me for six years, but she'll have to leave soon and get married to my father, or I will never exist."

"So, how?"

"I really can't go back without assistance and I don't really want to anyway. It's complicated. I've always been able to move around through time."

"Why did you come here?" Potter asked shutting the book softly, its painting of Professor Potter himself unseeable through the glare from the lamp on his desk.

"It was an accident really. I was supposed to be watching the Streams of Time for invaders, but there was a Tear in the Streams, and I went to investigate and everything I blank until I appeared in the Ministry of Magic."

"Does anyone else know?"

"Only Mami, and she doesn't know everything," I told him seriously, "And neither do you."

Professor Potter stared at me for a moment as if unsure as to whether he was going to ask me about the secrets I was still keeping from him. We stared at each other for several minutes before Professor Potter abruptly seemed to recall where they were

"Off you go. To Ravenclaw Tower I presume," He told me shaking his head like he was trying to shake off a daze.

"No, the Astronomy Tower," I told him standing and taking the book from his desk, "Please don't tell anyone about me."

"Are you sure? You don't want Albus to know?" The professor asked seemingly innocent. I knew he wasn't. I also realized that he had been trying to set me and Albus up from the beginning. That was why he took me to his office, to see the photos, and that was why he told me about him. Stupid interfering man. I don't care that I really do like him, it wasn't Professor Potter's place to try and get us together. Besides, Albus is too dense to notice how I feel or Professor Potter's machinations.

"I'll end up telling him eventually,' I told him reaching the door, "Mami would tell me that it was 'hitsunsen' that he found out." I left before he could ask what hitsunsen was.

~*~

**This chapter is a bit longer than some of the others, but I feel a little guilty about how long it has taken me to get around to typing this up. Mami is also referred to as Rose in some of Emma's memories in previous chapters. If you ever get confused as to who Mami is I recommend you look at my Rose series, which while they're Sailor Moon fan fictions, they contain Mami's character as well as her past. Nothing really important happens in her life before those stories, so they make a pretty good jumping point on finding out who she is. An alternate universe version of her is in Chibi Sailors as well, so that's a good place to look too.**

**Next chapter:**

**The introduction of a pretty un new character**

**The assigning of detentions**

**And Wand malfunctions**


	13. Memory 12

I rushed to the Astronomy Tower using the Marauder's Map liberally. I reached the tower at the same time as the professor who was an overly fashionable woman in her forties.

The professor was Professor Patil. She was in Ravenclaw when she was at school, and apparently she had done perfectly on both her OWLs and NEWTs in Astronomy, despite having been interrupted in the middle of her OWL exams. Her scores seem impossible to me, but then I could tell you all the stars of the skies in several extinct Worlds and tell the mythology of some of the more major constellations.

But then there have always been facts and figures in my mind which were unattached to any memories. It's been that way for as long as I can remember, and I strtch plausibility with the fact that I can remember things from when I was nearly four, vague images that weren't attached to much, but some of them were of my father before he died.

In other words I'm an exception to most rules of nature.

Astronomy was extremely boring, but my telescope was next to a girl named Aisha Wellson. Aisha is a first year Hufflepuff, and she had a flair for pranks. Aisha's older half-brother had come of age over the summber and shown Aisha a number of useful spells, plus Aisha had picked up a few things from Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes with her seventh-year brother.

So we spent the Astronomy lesson making stars appear on various people's telescopes. Once I had the knack for the spell I started showing completely different night skies on the telescopes, and some of those night skies were from completely serarate Worlds.

Professor Patil caught us near the end of class as I muttered the spell intending to make Jassin's telescope show a constellation from another World which has a myth about a woman who ran away to the stars to escape a man who loved her. Aisha was laughing and I blame our being caught on her giggling, not my muttering.

But anyway, we got a week of detentions.

At double Charms the next morning Aisha took the seat to my left and Lela-Rose took the seat to my right. Professor Flitwick watch Aisha closely and I wondered what she had done to the small aging wizard.

Today we were paired up by Flitwick and for some strange reason I was to work with Aisha. Luckily it was the hovering charm, ad I already knew it (I learned it reading _Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone_). Although according to that book they didn't learn the spell until Halloween, and I had to wonder why Flitwick had changed the schedule.

"Windgardium Leviosa!" I called swishing and flicking my wand before Flitwick had finished his explanation. I couldn't tell why I did it, but the result was that my book went flying off my desk. I directed it onto the desk in front of Professor Flitwick, and he fell over in surprise. Before her hit the ground I had cast another charm and lifted him back onto his teetering book pile.

"Thirty points to Ravenclaw!" Flitwick squealed staring wildly at me. I blushed and set my wand on the desk in front of me. Aisha snatched it up in surprise. Flitwick didn't notice.

As Flitwick started teaching again I struggled with Aisha to get my wand back.

"Your wand looks like a picture of the Elder Wand I saw in a book!" Aisha told me in a loud whisper. Unfortunately no one turned to look to see what we were up to.

"My wand is cherry wood!" I whispered furiously back reaching for my wand desperately. Suddenly my wand spat silver sparks over Aisha who screamed briefly and let go of my wand, as if it burned. I grabbed my wand and looked at Aisha who was covered in small red burns.

"Off to the hospital wing Miss Wellson! Miss Macay, escort her if you will," Flitwick squeaked as Aisha held her hands away from the rest of her body (they were pretty badly burned after all).

I grabbed Aisha's upper arm to help her up, and we left the room in silence. Aisha's hands and face and a little bit of her wrists were the only parts burned, but they were small blistering burns so close together they looked massive.

"Why'd you grab my wand?" I asked her finally looking at her left hand (which was closer to me).

"I was curious, it was really long," Aisha said guiltily, "What is it by the way?"

"Phoenix feather core, cherry wood, 16 inches long. Apparently it's good for Charms work," I told her forgiving her for her curiosity. It wasn't worth being angry at her.

"Oh, mine's a dragon heartstring, yew at 13 inches long," Aisha said wincing as her mouth moved. Even her mouth had been burned pretty badly by those sparks. And the things looked so innocent too, like fairy dust or something like that.

"I don't know how I made my wand spit though, and I'm sorry. I didn't mean to hurt you," I told her as we descended a set of stairs to the hospital wing.

"I forgive you. I shouldn't have grabbed your wand anyway," Aisha said as I opened the door into the hospital wing.

We spent about half an hour with Madam Clearwater who was quick to put ugly yellow balm all over Aisha's hands and face. Aisha looked disgusted with it, and she couldn't talk or it would get into her mouth, which Aisha was not willing to risk

In the end Madam Clearwater sent me off to class and I left Aisha washing puss colored balm off her face.

In potions we were making an antidote to a very common poison (the poison being simple itself), and it would need to rest overnight to find out if it was created correctly. We had class with Slytherin house today, and I noticed Professor Parkinson was treating them better than the Ravenclaw students. I also noticed that I was surprisingly treated with the same accord.

The potion today was supposed to start out murky green that smelled like radishes (it had bright orange things that looked like radishes too), but after sitting overnight it would turn almost as orange as the radishes. Funny enough Zabini added too many of the orange radishes and his potion literally blew up in his face. He was sent to Madam Clearwater stained a very, very bright orange. Michael was sitting next to me as I promised he could, and I had to hit him, very hard, when he almost added too much thyme, which Professor Parkinson informed us was grown by professor Longbottom in greenhouse 1.

Despite Zabini blowing up his potion and Michael almost melting his, the most exciting part for most of the class was Mami's reappearance. She was wearing what looked like a formal dress modeled after medieval fashion. Mami was completely unaware of the fact that one of the Slytherin girls was laughing about her dress. Or at least I thought so until I saw Mami lean in close to the girl and say in a stage whisper, "At least I'm not wearing a ribbon that looks like it had been dragged through the mud, but I refrained from mentioning my opinion."

"Do you know who I am?" She asked sounding incredibly outraged.

"No, but from your outrage and your house I would assume you're from an influential pureblood family," Mami said casually standing straight. If you added a tiara you would have sworn she was a princess of some kind.

"Yes, I'm-" But she was cut off by Holly's potion flooding the floor of the room melting stools and shoe soles in its wake. Mami looked in a complete panic over the rising flood of potion (which there looked to be far too much to have fit into Holly' cauldron), but Professor Parkinson waved her wand over the mess and it vanished. Another wave of the wand fixed Holly's cauldron. And with a flourish of her quill Holly was sent to Madam Clearwater. I was sent with her, because Holly couldn't really support herself. Mami came with us and when we were out of sight of the dungeon corridor where potions was taught Mami raised her wand at Holly, and Holly floated off the ground and was carried ahead of Mami to the Hospital Wing.

Madam Clearwater looked harassed as we walked in with a severely burned Holly in tow. Zabini was still in the Hospital wing, and although Madam Clearwater had managed to turn his skin the right color (with lots of scrubbing if I had to guess by his super pink skin), but his hair was an impressive Weasley red.

"What now? I swear potions with Professor Parkinson is more dangerous than the week before quidditch finals!" Madam Clearwater took Holly over to one of the empty beds and began her ministrations.

"Should I take Emma back to class?" Mami asked awkwardly as madam Clearwater muttered to herself about potions.

"No, it's almost lunch, just go there!" Madam Clearwater said giving one of Holly's feet a savage jab. Holly yelled in pain before glaring at the Hogwarts Medi-witch.

"Right, well," Mami said dragging me from the room by my arm.

"Ouch, you're holding me arm in a vice-grip!" I exclaimed wriggling my arm to get it free. Mami released me at once.

"Penelope Clearwater, she was a Ravenclaw and she's not one you want to annoy. It's like poking a hungry eagle; you're likely to lose a finger" Mami explained as we walked to the Great Hall.

When we reached the Great Hall Mami went up to the staff table, and I sat alone at Ravenclaw table. Although we were the first two to lunch, the food was already set out. I ate quickly and spent the time remaining before I would be joined by my fellow Ravenclaws reading _Harry Potter and the Philospher's Stone_.

Two weeks passed without any events. Aisha and I got in trouble, Mami covered for us on a number of occasions, and Albus avoided me.

Then the day came that a notice was posted on the board in the Ravenclaw Common Room. This notice said that weekly tryouts in three weeks time. Flying lessons were mandatory and they would steal out afternoon free period on Wednesdays. I was not excited at the Prospect of the lessons because I never went to great heights in ear that I would find I was afraid of them.

"What do you think we'll be flying on?" Lela-Rose asked excitedly as we made our way to the quidditch pitch where our lesson would take place.

"I expect they'll be Comet two-sixties if that. I mean they're not going to give good brooms like Firebolt Twelves are they?" Lean said from my other side. I was lost. The best broom I had read about had been the original Firebolt.

"But Comets are sooo old fashioned!" Holly exclaimed angrily. Holly was a true quidditch fan. I discovered this last week when Holly finally got to the bottom of her trunk in her unpacking and decorating. Holly had one piece of paraphernalia for each quidditch team in Great Britain in a box that had obviously been magically modified for it all to fit.

"Yeah, but Comets are cheap," Lela-Rose said realistically. I figured Lela-Rose's point would win more over Holly's about how old fashioned they were.

"Of course Comets are practically antiques, they might have up-graded to Nimbus 2000s," Lean added contradicting her earlier remark.

Marie, Meghann, and I had no place in this conversation, because we didn't really know anything about brooms (Meghann didn't like quidditch, Marie was a muggleborn, and I was twenty years behind on what's up in quidditch), but I was starting to suspect Meghann of being afraid of heights My reasoning for this statement being the extra pale complexion that clashed with her red hair, and the fact that she was muttering something that I'm pretty sure included the phrase, "all my bones broken."

The Hufflepuffs had already gotten to the pitch before we arrived, and there were several people standing around a group of brooms. One of them was Professor Potter who looked ecstatic, a man who looked (if it was even possible) even happier than Professor Potter, and to my great surprise, Mami who looked as if she was about to pass out. I knew that if they actually got her onto a broom she _would_ pass out. Mami was so terrified of heights that she once spent an entire class period at school with two teachers and several of her friends trying to coax her down In the end she lost her balance and jammed her spine (which made it the third time she had done so).

"Hello, I'm Oliver Wood, you all know Professor potter, and he was the best seeker Gryffindor house team ever had, although his son comes close," Wood said looking wondering at the last bit. It was then that I remembered that the chocolate frog card had said that Harry Potter was one of the best amateur quidditch players in the world.

"We'll start with getting your brooms. Just put your hand in the air over your broom and call 'up'." We did as told, but only a handful of brooms jumped to the hands above them. I noticed Leah, Lela-Rose, and Holly had all managed to get their brooms to jump. I called again more firmly and the broom popped into my hand. It took many of them several more trys, and one Hufflepuff had to just pick up his broom in the end.

Then we had to mount the broom and Wood corrected the grip on almost all the students. Highly surprisingly I was not corrected. Wood just walked past me to Aisha who was gripping hers awkwardly. Unsurprisingly Holly, Leah, and Lela-Rose all held their brooms correctly as well. There were very few others who did though.

Once everyone was holding their brooms correctly Wood had us kick off the ground and hover for a few second before returning to the ground. One Hufflepuff boy was so nervous he forgot how he was supposed to be holding his broom, and he slid off his broom to one side.

This was when I discovered why Mami was there, she quickly checked over the Huflepuff, and finding no major injuries helped him mount his broom once more. I assume that had he been injured more than a few small bruises Mami would have escorted him to see madam Clearwater.

We repeated the exercise rising a few feet and landing on the ground again before Wood allowed us to move forward a foot while we were a few feet off the ground. At this point I was getting a feel for the broom, and without thinking I shot off the next time we left the ground. I happily zoomed around the pitch a few times before landing back with the class, all the blood had drained from Mami's face, but professor Potter was grinning proudly. My friends were all laughing especially Aisha who thought it was a great prank to pull.

I didn't get in trouble for the incident, and Wood advised me to try out for my house team. I told him I would consider it and he nodded gravely Wood took quidditch very seriously.

**I ended up going through the flying lessons on this one, even though I'm pretty sure I planned to stop after the potions lesson. But the chapter seemed awfully short, so I kept going. I hope you like the flying lesson scene, because I think I did that one well.**

**This chapter brought in one of my favorite characters in this story. That would be Aisha Wellson. She's a prankster, and a trickster. She's very fond of pulling pranks, and she'll get lots of chances later in the story. It's a good deal later, but we'll get there I promise. I've written up through that part of the story, I just haven't gotten it typed up yet.**

**In case anyone's wondering why it took so long to update (you shouldn't be, I warned you all that I was lazy), it's because at first I was just being lazy, then I had a crisis with my grades (all my fault), then it got to finals time. But I have my last final tomorrow (then I can be free of the evil insanity (yes he's really EVIL) that is my French teacher for good), and I have all summer to get this thing typed up (which is my goal for the summer funny enough).**

**I've gotten all the way to May of the story (this chapter is still mid-September), and I have it planned all through the next school year as well. I've got a lot to write and altogether the story should take about three years (Emma's first second and third years) to tell. Then there will be a sequel. Which everyone will want to read because I already planned the ending of this story, and it's a cliffie of epic proportions.**

**I promise I won't abandon this story though, I really love it.**


	14. Memory 13

"Will you try out for the team?" Holly asked anxiously that night while I was planning my next design for one of the panels of my curtains. That was what I brought the canvas for, but Holly was going to use it all up if I didn't get more.

"I don't know. I think I'll just try to be commentator, apparently they've had trouble holding onto a good one They switch almost every game," I told her pulling the silver thread from the pile on my bed. I examined it a moment and set it back down. I was going to need more of that too.

"Oh! Good I wanted to try out and there's only on spot open this yea, although it is open try-outs," I looked at her curiously, "That means that technically all the spots on the team are up for grabs, but we'll probably just play all the old faces unless someome is beyond amazing."

"What spot is open?" I asked marking in another leaf, the green would make a good contrast to the blue and silver.

"One of the beaters," I jerked in shock. Holly had said she liked playing chaser only a efw days ago.

"I thought you were a chaser? I'm a beater I think, but still," I said setting down my canvas.

"Well, yeah, I am a chaser, but I'm not likely to get the place. I think I'll try out for both haser and beater positions if I can. I might make the reserve team for chaser," Holly informed me calmly.

It was just me and Holly in the dorm. Lela-Rose was in the library, Marie was in the Common Room, Leah was begging Professor Skrewt for extra lessons, and no one could figure out where Meghann was. Ice and Crest were napping on the table that was supposedly for our homework use, but we used it for pet storage. Crest and Ice had their bed there, and Holly and Meghann's owls had their cages there, although they usually spent their time in the Owlery.

"You'll probably at least make reserve, you're pretty good. Well you're better than most of the other first years at least. That youngest Weasley in Gryffindor, what's his name…um…Louis, yeah, Louis might give you a run for your money, but look at his family. Louis has an older sister who's a sixth years on the team, two of his cousins are on the team, his dad and half his uncles were on the team, and one of his aunts played Quidditch professionally. No, I think you're pretty good, Louis just had ridiculously good genes," I told her rambling a little as I picked up a spool of midnight blue.

When I looked up at Holly again she was beaming, and I was taken aback. I hadn't seen Holly this happy despite her general perkiness, and it was disconcerting to tell the truth. I suddenly elt uncomfortable to be sitting in the same room with just her. I made my excuses and ran off to the library to read _A Magical Comparison of Wizarding Schools_ Which was really _Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban_ in disguise. I had opened the book to my page and I was about to start reading when Rose came up behind me.

"hey, will you come with me for a second?" She requested looking at me intently I closed my book and nodded. Rose sighed looking relieved.

When I had gathered all my things she led me out of the library and into a nearby empty classroom. The desks were piled on one side of the room and a number of tables that looked like they could have come out of the Ravenclaw dorms were stuffed into the room against the opposite wall.

"Why's Albus acting so weird around you? Did you say something to him?" Rose asked perching on the edge of a desk. Her expression was so stern it was hard to see the girl who had cheerfully introduced me to her friends and laughed after I broke Stella's finger.

"No, Michael and I had fallen asleep in class and we were both sort of asleep and stumbling around on our way to the Great Hall. I lost my balance and took Michael down with me Albus came along at just that moment and now he thinks I like Michael, but I don't. Michael's funny enough, but he ruins his potions, unless I watch him closely, and he couldn't fly a broom to save his life. Plus he's three years younger than me," I told her getting heated up with indignation. I liked Albus!

"So you like Albus," Rose stated calmly. It wasn't a question all I had done was confirm her suspicions. Rose wasn't a Ravenclaw for nothing.

"What?" I asked surprised. I hadn't thought she would have noticed that fast.

"You like him. You should ask him to go with you to Hogsmeade. The first trip is in two weeks. I'm sure he'll go with you if you ask He'll just be hanging out with Meg and Stella if you don't. You should take him to The Three Broomsticks and the Hogsmeade branch of Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes," Rose suggested, or rather ordered. When Rose was leaving no room for question it wasn't a suggestion.

"I…I don't know. I wasn't really planning to go. I mean most of my friends are first years, they're not allowed to go," I told her stuttering a little. I didn't know how to ask someone out!

"You can't miss Hogsmeade! Make sure you bring stuff back for your first year friends though. Some butterbeers maybe, or Honeydukes chocolates." Rose told me still being commanding. I swear Rose would do well as a politician, mostly because she always gets her way. She has her dad wrapped around her finger too. She's his older child, and his only girl. Then there's Scorpius, who is so infatuated at this point that the only thing he won't risk for her is her father. All her cousins are just terrified of her, so is her little brother. Rose could almost be a Slytherin if she wasn't a Ravenclaw.

"but-" I started to object.

"No buts! If you can't ask him I'll glue your mouth shut and ask him for you," I'm not sure if Rose was threatening me or giving me a promise. They end up being about the same.

"I'll try," I muttered and to my annoyance Rose smiled sweetly, patted me on the shoulder, and left the room. I'm going to have to get back at her one of these days, maybe I'll get a note for the Restricted Section of the library to look at the time spells. I should be able to modify one for my devious purposes after that.

That night I had a dream. It wasn't unusual that I dreamed, but usually I forgot it in the morning. This dream didn't fade in the light of day.

_Everything was calm and still as it was meant to be. Nothing disturbed the stillness Directly below me was a clear stream of an almost impossible blue. I could see events passing me by slowly. There was Rose getting out of her sickbed, and there was Lan kissing her and crying because he hadn't lost her._

_I couldn't hear anything from them, but suddenly Rose was angry, she threw a book at Lan, she was crying. I watched as she tired herself out and Lan tucked her in. He kissed her forehead and left the room. Rose was awake again, and she cried._

_The next day Rose wouldn't talk to Lan. It was clear in her stance and posture. Instead she read her favorite books for comfort. There was Harry Potter, and there was the Lioness Rampant, and there was deep Wizardry. She spent a week reading all her favorite books and doing nothing else. I watched leaving only briefly to check on the Streams making sure nothing had collided, no events moving unduly._

_After that first week Lan invaded with college level work for Rose to complete. Rose did it and passed time on an English major._

When I woke up I realized something disturbing, that was a memory I hadn't retrieved earlier, there were still missing memories from my mind. That bothered me more than it should have, I knew it wasn't nearly as bad as when I first arrived, when I couldn't remember anything, but it bothered me more. I should remember everything now, but I don't. That scares me, and I don't like myself when I'm scared.

When I'm scared I cringe and avoid everything. I refuse to let anyone in who could help, but that's not what I want. I want to let the people who can help in, because I know if I don't I'll stay scared, and it makes it worse because I have to face my fear and I can't alone.

What makes it all worse, no one ever notices.

No one ever sees that I'm scares, that there's a reason I'm cutting them out, that there's a reason why I'm suddenly cynical and speaking caustically. I sometimes wish someone would see, but they won't, I know they won't notice. No one has that kind of attachment to me, an attachment that would make them notice that something is different, and something is wrong. So they won't notice it's not right until it's too late to notice anything.

I spent the next week cutting people out, completely forgetting about the whole 'ask-Albus-out-or-Rose-will-glue-your-mouth-shut-and-do-it-for-you' thing. I read through all the remaining books of the Harry Potter series finally understanding why Voldemort survived, how Harry killed him, why the Weasley twins were short a twin, why George was short an ear, what happened to Dumbledore and Snape; all of it. I continued by borrowing rose's second and third year books, which I devoured, having already memorized my own books. I had memorized all the first and second year material before Rose noticed what I was doing.

"Why are you reading? Why haven't you asked Albus out yet? And do I have to hex you?" Rose demanded staring me down the Monday before the Hogsmeade weekend.

"I've decided not to go. I'm going to spend the time studying instead. I'm determined to learn all seven years worth of knowledge for every class offered at Hogwarts plus some and in the same time it takes you and Albus to finish,' I told her fibbing slightly. I didn't really have a goal, I wanted to learn everything within the school curriculum and as much as I could about time centered magics. But I wasn't telling Rose about the last part.

"you have to go! I know you'll regret it if you don't!" Rose looked truly desperate.

"No, I won't," I told her; n outright lie. I was already regretting it. I didn't want to push them away, but for some reason I was doing it anyway.

Rose looked at me concernedly, then she turned and left and this lonely feeling in my crest grew and threatened to consume me. I pushed it down and went back to _Magical Beasts and Where to Find Them_.

The Hogsmeade weekend passed and I spent the day memorizing books. I had made it to the end of third year on Monday when classes started again I swore someone was watching me study all weekend, but every time I looked up there was either no one, or else the people were engrossed in their own studying. I didn't even ever know any of them Well unless you count knowing that the studious seeming boy from Slytherin was always reading the same book or that the sixth year Gryffindor who was always going through the section on magical artifacts was a Weasley (Although not one I knew personally).

On Monday afternoon during our free period I was studying again when every girl in the school I knew by name and face came and physically dragged me from my seat. There was rose, holly, Stella, Lela-Rose, Meghann, Marie, Aisha, Mami, and Meg, Albus's best friend.

"Why? I was just doing my transfiguration essay, it's due on Wednesday, and if I don't do it now I won't have time for my research," I told them as Stella and Meg dragged me bodily down hallways. Holly had her hands on my back pushing me along.

When we stopped we were standing in front of an empty classroom which I was shoved into and locked in.

"I need to finish my work!" I yelled at the now closed door and the retreating sound of giggling. Why in the world am I the only sane girl in the world who does not giggle? It's a conspiracy, I'm sure of it.

"Emma? Why did I get kidnapped by a bunch of girls?" I turned dreading because I knew that voice; it was Albus.

**So I ended this with the beginning of one of my favorite scenes. There are only two or three which I like more, and they won't be coming for awhile yet. I considered giving you the whole kidnapping scene in this chapter, but I decided I would just end it with Emma realizing she's locked in a room with Albus.**

**A couple of people asked if Emma would be trying out for the quidditch team, so this chapter gives you your answer. Emma isn't really a quidditch sort of person. She's more of a martial arts sort of person. Emma doesn't play nice very well, so martial arts would really be more up her alley than a team sport. I'll explain why later…like much later.**

**If anyone is wondering the full typed part of the story is 63 pages, and I have at least thirty or forty worth already written, but in a notebook. So as long as people review to remind me to work on my story you should have fairly constant updates throughout the summer. I'll be going on vacation at the end of June, so there may be a gap around then, but otherwise my updates should be pretty constant.**

**Well I'll be leaving now so I can post this stupid thing!**


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